


Sight

by thosepeakybastards



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-05-14 21:22:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 38,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14777468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thosepeakybastards/pseuds/thosepeakybastards





	1. Chapter 1

Estelle hadn't really grown up abnormally. She'd never really known her mother, but that didn't bother her, having been raised by her maternal grandmother in a small house just outside of Birmingham. Nana Mary had taken her in as a baby. Her mother to the best of her knowledge had been a prostitute in town after leaving the family home to make something of herself in the town and died of some disease while Estelle was still in infancy. She had no idea who her father had been. So Nana Mary had acted as caretaker.

Mary had made her living in crocheting, knitting, and lacemaking for people in the area and had taught Estelle how to do the same. It wasn’t much money, but it was enough to scrape by. Of course that changed one afternoon when they were sitting working on some curtains that had been commissioned by a lady in town. Nana Mary had been rather lazily working when she leaned back a bit in her chair, set her work down in her lap, and just let herself relax. It even took Estelle a few minutes to notice that her grandmother wasn't moving. At first she panicked and tried to revive her grandmother, rubbing her hand and begging her to wake up. After a few minutes she gave up and the shock set in. She’d never had to deal with a person’s death before and ran through her head what she knew needed to be done. She knew she couldn't just bury the body. So she grabbed the shawl started the trek toward town to get the coroner. She hadn’t really gone into town before. Nana Mary had a man come about once a week and he would deliver groceries and money from the commission and Nana Mary would pay him and give him this weeks work to deliver. 

Estelle thought about these things as she walked toward town. At a crossroads there was a sign posted about 10 ft off the ground pointing a couple of different directions but it was too far away to read. So wondering why they made the signs so far away, she picked a road and started walking again. About mid-afternoon along the way someone stopped their cab.

 

"Where ya going Miss?" the driver said, "the road isn't a place for a lady alone." 

 

"Birmingham," Estelle replied, she knew it was urgent to get there but didn't quite feel okay giving this stranger all the details.

 

"Well I'm afraid you're headed the wrong direction. Hop on up here and I'll get you there."  
With nothing to lose Estelle hopped up into the buggy next to the man and set off toward town. He was an older man running into town for the mail. He went on to tell of all the pleasantries that went with his life. His family, kids, grandkids. 

It didn't take too long before they reached town. It smelled awful but he dropped her off anyway. Estelle started down the empty street. It seemed surprising for a town. She heard machinery off in the distance but the street seemed empty except for one person. She approached them and getting closer noticed he was a well dressed man. 

 

"Hello, sir?" she said. 

 

He seemed a little taken aback by someone approaching him  
"Can I help you with something?" he said, sounding confused himself. 

 

Estelle perched up as straight as she could. "Yes actually. I need some directions"

 

He laughed a little. "Well sure, you must not be from here" 

 

"Can you tell me how to get to the coroner's?"

 

His face fell, realizing that visiting the coroner was never good news. 

 

"Don't get upset. It's really alright." she said, heart aching.

 

"Well if you take a left at that store there" he said gesturing off a distance down the road. He continued the directions not knowing that it was pointless. Estelle was very nearsighted, but she didn't realize that not everyone saw the same way she did.  
She couldn't even see as far as where to turn the first time. But thanked him anyway and went on her way as best she could. She only got around the first turn before feeling a hand on her shoulder.

-

Finn had been smoking. His family had been fighting again. It seemed like every 5 seconds they were at each other’s throats. Recently there had been trouble with some Americans that had led to the death of his brother, John. So with the tension higher than ever Finn felt like he needed to step away from it for a bit, and out the door he had slipped in the middle of their usual cut-throat remarks and chain smoked his way to the edge of town. He had been lost in thought when a girl about his age approached him in the middle of the empty street.

He was a little surprised when she called him “Sir.” His family was known all over town and deemed a little unapproachable and yet here someone was, not knowing who he was and even referring to him with the formal title of sir. He managed to respond appropriately, not letting on his surprise. The girl needed directions. Had to be from out of town. The poor thing needed directions to the undertaker. Finn pointed her out the way and watched her as she walked away.

She hadn’t been an unpleasant sight. A little dirty perhaps. And then he realized. This is the only girl in town limits that has no idea about his family or what was going down in town lately. And in this part of town. She was going to get herself killed. He started following her to make sure she made it okay and she proved she wasn’t pretty quickly when she turned the wrong corner first thing. Finn caught up to her and stopped her

 

"Hey," he said. The girl turned to face him."I- you turned at the wrong place" he stammered, taking his hand off her shoulder. "You were supposed to go down a little farther." he said, " I'm sorry but can you see okay? The turn I pointed at was pretty clearly marked" 

 

She blushed. "Excuse me?" she said, seeming a little upset. 

"Nevermind, let's just get you there," he said. “How am I supposed to act?” he thought. He offered his arm, immediately ridiculing his strange behavior, but she hooked her arm into his. "So what is your name?" he asked after a few steps, "I should have asked sooner." 

 

"My name's Estelle Lewis" she responded. 

 

"Estelle, why are you here alone? This isn't really a safe place for that. I'm not even supposed to be out alone and I'm a grown man." he said. No I’m not,” he thought, “I’m only seventeen. Why am I acting this way. 

 

"My grandmother died," she choked. It was the first time she said it out loud and it finally hit her that she’d lost her. Tears started streaming down her face. "She's all I have in the world."

 

“Fuck,’ He panicked a little bit at her reaction, “you idiot, you’re not supposed to make a pretty girl cry” "Oh no no come here." Finn pulled Estelle to the side and set her up on a barrel. It put her to eye level. "I'm sorry I just was trying to-" 

 

"No it's not your fault I just don't know what to do, I just know she's sitting there and I need to get someone to her," silent tears streamed down her face. She felt him tilt her chin up with his left hand.

He pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at her tears. The crying made the area around her eyes pink: it made the deep green of her hazel eyes stand out. He found them utterly striking and had to take a split second to compose himself to answer her. "Don't worry. We'll get you sorted. Just you hold on to this and let's get this taken care of." he helped her back down and the two of them rushed the rest of the way to the undertaker. She struggled to keep up with his pace, his stride was longer than hers.

It had gotten about to evening when they arrived. Finn held the door open for Estelle watching as she stepped in. 

 

The owner called out from the back as he approached, "may I help you?" He straightened up upon seeing Finn. "Mr. Shelby, sir, how can I help you?"

Finn gestured to Estelle.  
.  
"Well I can't put her back there," the undertaker chuckled, "she's too lively"

 

"My grandmother died. I need someone to help me take care of her," Estelle said, a little frustrated at his levity.

Finn stood near smoking a cigarette and peaked through the blinds, checking the empty streets. He pretended to study the wallpaper as he eyed Estelle. She was only maybe 5 inches shorter than he. He also hadn’t seen haur as long as hers in a few years, most all the women he knew had their hair bobbed. It was light brown, bordering blonde. But she and the undertaker talked over the details of what happened, where he needed to go and her name as well as her grandmothers. Finn reflected on the fact that not long ago he had been sent here to handle his brother’s affairs.

"Well miss. I can't be out to get her until morning." 

Finn watched Estelle start to pout: it wasn’t an expression he was particularly liked. He interjected, "Mr. Wilkes, can't you do it tonight, as a personal favor to me" 

 

"Yes, sir." Wilkes complied, "as soon as I can get ready sir. I'll be seeing you Miss."  
He held the door open for the pair as they left. 

 

"Thank you, Mr. Shelby," Estelle said to her benefactor. 

 

Finn was distracted and didn’t listen, but responded with a question, "Where are you going to stay tonight?" 

 

"I thought I'd hitch a ride home with Mr. Wilkes" she answered. It wasn’t the answer he was hoping for. But if his family had taught him anything, it was how to bend a situation to suit him.

He put his hand to his forehead. "Come on. We can't have you staying in the middle of nowhere by yourself"  
Estelle began to protest but he ignored it as if he were pulling this change of events off flawlessly and pulled her along. "Mr. Shelby I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"I'm not gonna have it on my conscience that I let you have to stay alone tonight. Now come on," he reasoned. He didn’t really have a plan of where to take her. A young lady like her had no business staying with an unmarried man like him. So he took her to the only place that came to mind.

 

Estelle stood awkwardly on the road as Finn knocked. 

 

Ada Shelby answered the door, gun in hand. Estelle shifted back upon seeing the stranger greet them with a weapon. "Finn, where the hell have you been? People have been looking for you," she chastised. 

 

"Ada I need a favor" Finn began. 

 

Ada leaned close to whisper in his ear so the girl behind her brother wouldn't hear. "She's not pregnant is she Finn?"

 

"What? No. She needs a place to stay tonight. She has nowhere to go." Finn said at normal volume, exasperated. “I only just lost my virginity and she thinks I have a girl pregnant? For Fucks sake, I’m not John” he thought to himself.

Estelle tried to insert herself into the conversation these two were having right in front of her as if she weren’t there, "Actually I-"

 

Ada spoke over her to Finn. "So the girl gets in trouble and immediately decides to find the one family that is even more trouble in this shithole of a town. Well. Come on in. Can't have you standing out in plain view"

Finn stepped out of the way to let Estelle into the house first. Then he thought about hoe Ada was right, he had been gone for a few hours now and needed to make sure Tommy hadn’t called the cavalry to go out and find him. 

Estelle glanced back to him, waiting for him to follow her in. They made eye contact but he addressed Ada.

"Thank you Ada, I promise I'll have somewhere else arranged for her tomorrow" he said, "Goodnight!" 

 

Ada shut the door, locked it and turned to Estelle. "Alright girly what's your name?" she asked, “I won’t ask how you managed to get him to act this way. It’s like he thinks you’re a sick puppy. Next he’ll be asking if we can keep you.” 

 

"Estelle Lewis ma'am," Estelle replied uncomfortably to Ada’s crass remark.

 

"Oh don't call me that, makes me feel a hundred years old. Well I'm Ada. I guess we should get you set up in the guest bed." Ada jabbered as she led Estelle up the stairs to a bedroom. "Anyway, if you need me I'll be the second door to your left, down the hall. Please try not to need anything" 

 

"I won't be any trouble" Estelle promised.

 

"I hope not" Ada said," the last thing we Shelby's need right now is another problem." and with that she shut the door and left. 

 

Estelle settled into the room, the bed much more comfortable than what was at home. It had been a whirlwind of a day. As she slipped off her overdress she pulled Finn’s handkerchief out of her pocket. “I'll have to find some way to thank him,” she thought, fingering the delicate fabric. Then, physically and emotionally exhausted she fell asleep with it still in her hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Finn knew he was gonna catch hell when he got back into the office, so before he went and caught it from Tommy he slipped into John’s office and poured himself some gin. He grimaced at the taste. Tommy’s new obsession had eked its way into all corners of the place. Finn thought about how he was gonna try to explain why he had ‘recklessly endangered’ himself. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to form anything before Tommy came in.

“Boy, you know you can’t do that shit with a vendetta going on,” Tommy said cooly, “Ada called a few minutes ago and told me you left a girl there. How do you know she isn’t working for them? Ada didn’t recognize her or her name.”

Finn scoffed a little at the thought of Estelle working for the Americans. Her accent alone told him she was Birmingham grown. “I don’t think so,” he defended. 

Tommy relented surprisingly quickly. “Just don’t let yourself fall for any stupid tricks. Now get your ass home. We got a busy day tomorrow.” Then Tommy left the room as quickly and quietly as he came.

Finn was used to getting treated a little more gently than the rest of the family. As much as he hated getting in trouble, he wished his family treated him with the same level of respect John had. He might have been younger but Tommy would have railed John for this. Finn might have been the youngest but he’d never appreciated being treated like a baby. Even Michael had more respect and he had only been ‘in the family’ a couple years. So in this incidence Finn just rolled his eyes and went back to the small apartment he’d been staying in.

The next morning Estelle woke up to a knock on the bedroom door. Before she could answer, Ada let herself in. “Come on. I have to go in to the office and I can't leave you here alone.” she threw a dress on the bed. “And I can't have you coming with me looking like you did yesterday when you got here. That's a dress of mine you can wear. Never did fit me right anyway. In the room left of this is a bathroom where you can clean up a bit, wipe your face, use a comb. Don't take long,” Ada said, nonchalantly ordering the girl around a bit and shutting the door behind her.

Estelle took another second to reflect on the transaction that just happened. Ada was unlike any woman she had ever met. The tall, beautiful woman was being very kind even if she was giving an air of indifference. Estelle laid out the dress and looked at it a bit. She and Ada had fairly different body types. Ada was everything the magazines had portrayed that a woman should look like, slender, lacking the old fashioned curves of the corset age, short hair, a remarkable face and bright extravagant clothes. Estelle was not. Her own clothes were baggy enough to hide it but she was full figured and rather plain. She didn't feel worth the dress that Ada had casually discarded. But she put it on anyway. The fabric was light enough that Estelle still felt naked wearing it. It fit alright, wasn't excessively tight anywhere. She tied up her stockings and stepped quietly into the hall and over to the bathroom. 

Her own house hadn't had running water, but Estelle had seen it work and turned the tap. A small mirror hung over it and she stole glances at her reflection as she washed her face and combed her hair. She slipped her shoes back on in her room and went down the stairs to find Ada talking to a little boy and a woman in her mid forties. 

“Karl, this is mummy’s new friend Miss Estelle. She'll be with me today. Now be good for your tutor” Ada instructed her child before standing up and heading to the door with Estelle. “I can't wait for this group to meet you girly,” Ada said once they had gotten outside and she had lit her cigarette, “the girls are going to have a field day.” 

“You mean there's more girls? In managing positions?” Estelle asked, perplexed. 

Ada laughed. “The men only think they're in charge dear. We girls are the backbone. You'll see.”

Before long Estelle found herself stepping through the threshold of Shelby Company Limited. She followed Estelle to a large room with several desks and a couple of other women. Polly and Lizzie both turned from their conversation to greet Ada. Estelle watched as the group spoke. Apparently one of the women wasn’t supposed to be working and the other two were trying to convince her to go home. Estelle let her thoughts wander to the concerns of her deceased grandmother. Her expression must have shown it because the eldest of the ladies addressed her.

“Come here girl. We can’t have you that upset,” Polly said, motioning Estelle over. “You’ve been through something awfully upsetting recently haven’t you?” Polly stated this more than asked as she poured a drink and handed it to Estelle.

“Oh I’m sorry ladies: this is Estelle Lewis,” Ada said dismissively, “she stayed with me last night.”

“How did you know?” Estelle asked Polly.

“Well to start, you stayed the night with Ada” Polly joked, causing Lizzie to snort with laughter and Ada to jokingly defend herself. “But really,” Polly continued, “what’s happened that is so bad?”

“My grandmother died, I have no other family, and it’s gonna cost just about everything I have to bury her. I was only lucky enough to run into Mr. Shelby last night.” Estelle explained in full the events of the previous day to these new acquaintances. Toward the end of it she started to tear up and Polly pushed the hand Estelle held the glass of gin with to her lips. Estelle drank about half of what was in the shallow glass and grimaced at the bitter taste. She’d never had alcohol, and though her grandmother never kept it in the house she wasn’t opposed to it. Ada smiled a little at her reaction.  
“Well that at least answers some questions,” Polly said.

“Like what?” Lizzie asked.

“Like what you’re going to do today. You know Tommy isn’t going to have you here for any purpose other than pleasure. So you’re going with this one here do deal with those issues this one just laid out. It will be good to give you something to do anyway. I know that you only come here because you’re bored in that home of yours.’ Polly replied, “besides it gives Ada the opportunity to get a new secretary hired. It can’t be done while you still sit in that chair. The Americans don’t know how significant you are to the family yet so you’ll be safe.” 

Lizzie glared at Polly for a solid 5 seconds before sighing and standing up with a cheeky grin. “Fine. We don’t need these killjoys around to keep busy,” she started walking out, “come on Elise.”

“Estelle,” corrected Ada.

“Whatever. Come on Estelle” Lizzie said as she left the room. 

“Thank you: it was nice meeting you!” Estelle said before hurrying out after Lizzie. 

“I’ll fetch you later,” Ada called after her.

Estelle walked quickly to catch up with Lizzie, finally reaching her at the building exit. Lizzie turned to her and smiled.

“Have you ever been in a car? No? I didn’t think so. Well tell me where it is I’ll be driving us” Lizzie chattered. 

They spent the next few hours dealing with the funeral affairs of Nana Mary. Lizzie respectfully tolerated it through her boredom. Apparently Mr. Wilkes had taken the matter of arranging things into his own hands and the entire affair was over before 2 in the afternoon, service and all. Unfortunately, Estelle was right in the assumption that it would cost everything to get the poor old woman buried. Estelle would be allowed to retrieve a few things from her home. The home itself and the rest of the assets in it would be liquidated by the bank in order to repay the funeral parlor, the plot, and the minister. 

Lizzie mulled over her different thoughts on the matter of this almost stranger. Unless someone stepped in, the teen would have to enter the same line of work Lizzie herself had been lucky to escape. She came to the conclusion that she would make it her personal task to help get this unfortunate creature on her own two feet. Besides, it would be a project for her. And an easy one at that with the allowance Thomas had proposed to give her being much more than really necessary. Besides, the girl could help her around the house. So when all was said and done with the funeral and the pair were alone Estelle’s solemn sadness prompted Lizzie. 

“Do you know how to work in a house?” she asked, attempting not to jump the gun.

“I kept up with my own.” Estelle answered in a questioning tone.

“Well, only a few people know it, but I’m pregnant with Tommy’s child- Finn’s older brother, and the head of the company- and I’ll be moving soon and will need help around the house as the pregnancy progresses, and eventually with the baby itself. I’ll pay you a little of course, but you’ll be living in house with me. I’ll be paying for the food and other things you need.” Lizzie explained.

Estelle’s eyes had grown wide at this opportunity that she couldn’t believe was being offered. Just seconds ago she was facing homelessness and yet this woman was giving a second chance. She agreed immediately to Lizzie’s proposition and even hugged her. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon going out for food and to get the few things from the house that Estelle was allowed to keep and excitedly discussing the plans for the near future. In the early evening they went by Ada’s to get the rest of Estelle’s things. Finn had been there talking worriedly with Ada about the fact she had sent Lizzie and Estelle out into town alone. When Ada told them that, Lizzie laughed, claiming that he must have developed a fondness for Estelle. But Estelle blushed at the thought. She hadn’t really ever had attention from a man like that before and it wasn’t really something she had felt focused on, especially in the past two days. She didn’t let on these feelings to her new friends though and the conversation turned once again to the plans for Estelle and Lizzie’s cohabitation.

By the time night had come around she was set up in Lizzie’s town house. Estelle was ecstatic with the way her luck had turned out, and it was all thanks to the man she had met the day before. She had kept his handkerchief and thought back on him. He was pretty attractive for a boy their age, and he had financial stability, unlike most men that age and surely after all he had managed to do for her, he would be expecting something in return. Nana Mary had always warned Estelle that young men would do most anything to convince a girl out of her knickers. “Mr. Shelby didn’t seem like that kind of man,” Estelle thought. And remembered the night before when Ada had asked him if she was pregnant, thinking she hadn’t heard. “Has that happened before with him?” Estelle had these thoughts running through her head as she lay in her bed, waiting for sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Finn had spent that day helping Arthur get everything sorted for the Boxing match for the following day. By the time 6 o’clock had rolled around everything had been set up and tickets were selling like crazy. Arthur headed home to his wife, he had told Finn earlier about how he and Linda had had a little spat. Finn didn’t pay attention to what is was about: he’d been going over the fact he had told Ada that he would have something figured out for Estelle by tonight and here he was with no ideas and no clue what Ada had pulled her into. So at the opportunity Finn rushed to find out what his sister had done with the girl. Of course he also knew it would be considered rude for him to pretend he was only there to pick up the girl he had so mysteriously left there the night before. 

He let himself in this time when he got there, and found Ada alone drinking on her couch looking livid as ever. Finn knew it would be best to treat Ada’s anger delicately. “Hello Ada,” he began, “how are you? What have you done today?”

“Oh not much,” Ada sarcastically replied, “just getting fucking strip-searched by the fucking army.”

“What?! Was Est-”

Ada cut him off. “No your little girlfriend wasn’t with me, Polly sent her off with Lizzie earlier. Thank you so much for the concern for your own sister.” 

“Are you alright Ada?” Finn asked.

“Oh I’m fine but I’m gonna rip Tommy a new one. Apparently he had something to do with it.”

“In that case do you have any clue as to where they are now?” Finn inquired.

“No but they’ll be back. She has to come get her clothes.” Ada dismissed Finn’s question, “I’ll phone you when they get here so you can relax. Now get on out of here, I’ve got to go speak to our brother.”

Finn thought about what Lizzie could possibly want with Estelle. His mind went to the worst possible scenario when he remembered Ada’s words about Estelle having to come back for her clothes. Lizzie must have taken her off to a whorehouse. This thought festered in his head as he got back to his apartment. Lizzie took this one pure creature to go become like the woman they had made him fuck earlier that month. The idea made him physically ill, imagining his new friend being ravaged by a number of men. But not 30 minutes after he got home, he got a call from Ada. 

His relief was incredible as Ada told him that Lizzie had taken a liking to Estelle and hired her as a housemate and companion. He thanked Ada for telling him what had happened and hung up. Everything had managed to resolve itself in the matter of the girl. He thought about how he would get to see her again. And remembered that there was a fight that all the family was going to attend the following day. Of course he wouldn't be able to spend the event with her. The men and women tended to segregate themselves for these kind of events. But he would probably be able to steal a few minutes alone with her. 

“Open the fuckin door kid,” Arthur shouted, banging on the door. It was enough to make Finn wake with a start. He rushed to answer his brother’s beckon. His brother greeted him with a smile, sunshine streaming in behind him. “Christ. Were you asleep?” Arthur laughed, “We was beginnin’ to think you had died. Do you know what time it is?”

Finn answered him with a deadpan look. It was the only time that he looked like his brother Tommy. The teenager woke up with the same amount of energy for jokes that his brother maintained no matter how much sleep he got. 

“It’s two in the bloody afternoon. We’ve got shit to do. Now get some clothes on”

Finn did as he was told and met his brother in the yard downstairs. Isaiah and Arthur greeted him and they set about their day. Or continued with it, seeing as it was mid-afternoon. 

They went and double checked the venue. Arthur handed Finn a slip of paper. “Pol has warned me you’ve gotten yourself a girlfriend.” 

“She isn’t my-”

Arthur waved his hand dismissively, “whatever, anyways, we know you’ll be attending this with us. And the girls of course will show up. But I also know that you can’t bring her and the girls won’t think to. So give yours this and have her show up, it will give us a little opportunity to size her up. Besides that it will give you a reason to get her over to your place tonight.” He laughed.

Finn scoffed a little but took the ticket.

“Go on boy. We’ve all still got to get to looking our best and ‘ave only got and hour and a half before this event gets itself going.”

Finn heard Isaiah make a comment suggesting that Finn was gonna be to busy fucking the girl to show up in time. Isaiah was a close friend, closer to Michael, but still one of Finn’s friends. This was one of those comments that would have been fine saying to Michael but it pissed Finn off. However now wasn’t the time to start an argument and Arthur was right about only having a little bit of time to get everything done.

He knocked on the door of Lizzie’s new house. Estelle answered it, broom in hand and her hair pinned up. She seemed surprised to see him. 

“Mr. Shelby,” she started, “I wasn’t expecting you, Lizzie is upstairs getting ready for the thing tonight. A Boxing match right?”

Finn grinned. “Yes that’s right. And I’ve actually gotten you a way in if you’re interested.”

“I’ve never been to a boxing match,” she replied. 

“Well if you want to go, this will get you in,” Finn took her hand and placed the ticket in it, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get this to you in time for you to ride to the girls. And because I know you’ll end up being a bit late,” he pulled out a pound from his pocket, “this will more than cover someone driving you to the venue. Now I’ve got to get going myself, but I really hope to see you there.”  
He kissed the hand that he held, praying he wasn’t making a fool of himself. 

“Goodbye!” she called after him as he walked away.

He bit his lip, grinning ear to ear while he got back to his apartment. I didn’t take him too long. Just a change of clothes and running a comb through his hair, careful to part it down the middle. “That girl is gonna be there,” he thought, “Christ. What if the guys talk to her.” He walked down to meet his brother, who had just arrived in the car to pick him up. 

When they got to the venue, a man was frisking every creature that walked through the door for drugs and weapons.Arthur and Finn of course got through without trouble and entered the auditorium where Tommy had just lit a cigarette. Up in the ring Johnny was calling for bets to be placed with him, but Arthur and Tommy had motioned for Finn to go with them. They went down a small passageway to a locker room where Aberama Gold was giving a pep talk to his son, Bonnie, who was the Blinders pitch into the ring. Tommy passed around a flask as they discussed when Bonnie was to take out his opponent, a behemoth of a man accurately nicknamed Goliath. Finn wasn’t really paying attention. By the time he had gotten his swig out of the flask, Arthur was loudly proclaiming his intent to have fun. 

“For fucks sake,” Finn thought, “can’t he keep his mouth shut for 5 minutes.” Finn wasn’t very fond of social situations but this was a special occasion. Back in the auditorium Finn settled into drinking and laughing with Isaiah. The room was in a roar of cheers as the two boxers strutted up to the ring. The fight began. Finn watched the room, Tommy was nowhere to be seen: Finn spotted Arthur snuffing a whole vial of blow. Every now and then he glanced at the entrance to see if Estelle had shown up.

And then suddenly, she was there, he looked her up and down, noticing she’d put on makeup and seeing her shape under the silk dress. He caught himself staring and shook his head a little as he approached her. He knew better than to just stare at a lady’s body. She was standing by the doorway and spotted him when he was about 7 feet away from her. 

“You look lovely,” Finn said, trying to be heard over the crowd. 

“Thank you,” she replied, “you clean up well yourself.” 

Finn offered her a sip out of a bottle he had been holding before she had arrived. The pair started into a relatively awkward conversation: her thanking him for all he had done for her, him trying to change the subject in an attempt to make her feel less like she owed him something and more like she was a friend. Finn glanced down at the ring where Bonnie had just sustained a fairly harsh blow and winced. Estelle watched him.

“I don’t really understand the appeal of this,” she said, “ you can’t even see what’s happening on the stage.”

“The ring?”

“Yeah that”

“You can’t see it?” he asked, a little confused.

“No, and it’s awfully loud in here. I can hardly hear you,” Estelle answered, “where is Lizzie?” 

Finn scanned the auditorium and didn’t see her. But he noticed Arthur was gone, and Tommy was headed to the back room. Bonnie was in the middle of the set in which he was supposed to take out Goliath.

“I don’t know” he told Estelle, “Do me a favor and meet me outside in three minutes, it will be quieter, I promise I’ll be right back.”

Estelle looked at him for a second before she nodded and Finn watched her as she turned to go. He stepped down and got to Isaiah just as Bonnie landed the final blow. The room went up in excited cheers, Finn joining in, grinning at the crowd around him. He saw Tommy coming up and was about to congratulate him when Tommy grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him close.

“Finn, Arthur has been very badly injured, take Isaiah and find the fuckers here that did this. We need everyone but you and me to think he is dead,” Tommy said calmly but sternly. 

Finn shook his head in disbelief but grabbed Isaiah and went to hunt down the Italian. It didn’t take long being as the american was the only living creature in the halls besides himself and Isaiah. They got the Italian to his knees and Finn pulled a wire out of his pocket while Isaiah held the man at gunpoint. Finn handed the wire to Isaiah as he pulled his own weapon on the Italian. A moment later, Tommy approached and Isaiah showed the wire to Tommy. Finn was still in too much shock to explain.

Tommy started kicking the shit out of the Italian as Finn’s own vengefulness came to a head. Finn picked up where Tommy left off as Isaiah egged him on. Finn didn’t like the rapturous joy he felt at beating the living hell out of another person. The feeling was short lived as Isaiah took the Italian into a chokehold. Tommy told Finn to blind the Italian. Finn’s hesitation must have shown because Tommy repeated himself before saying “Do it for Arthur.” Finn had to do it. Cuts and bruises would heal but blinding a man was permanent and Finn hated the thought of being why a man suffered the rest of his days. But he pulled off his cap, gritted his teeth and sliced open the eyes of a man that wouldn’t have hesitated to kill him. He cut the eyes from the Italian, choosing to forget his morals and letting the rage and adrenaline take precedence. He hadn’t even noticed Tommy walking away, but as he wiped the Italian’s blood from his hands he heard a gunshot from the auditorium. Finn and Isaiah left the man writhing on the floor, kicking him one last time for good measure. 

Tommy was yelling for the doors to be shut and the boys rushed to comply while Tommy all but shrieked that no one was leaving, emptying a few more bullets into the ceiling, a hush falling over the room waiting to see what he would do next. And the announcement was made that Arthur was dead. One brave soul hopped into the ring and grabbed Tommy in a tight embrace. Finn watched from the same doorway that he had sent Estelle out of.

“FUCK,” Finn thought. There was nothing he could do to save the situation with Estelle. He was stuck there now, but at least she wasn’t there to witness this mess. Finn, took Isaiah from the auditorium as he went to attend to Arthur. He found Polly keeping the pale, blood drenched man alive. Finn and Isaiah themselves carried Arthur outside while Polly practically sprinted for the car. She pulled up, screeching to a halt to allow the three men in. Isaiah took the wheel as Polly instructed him to take them to the house of the nearest doctor. Tommy wouldn’t let Arthur be taken to the Hospital. 

The rest of the night was a blur to Finn between the doctor fixing up his brother and Polly sending him and Isaiah to Linda and the auditorium respectfully. It was probably 3 in the morning by the time he passed out in a chair at Linda’s. He woke up a few hours later to Polly tapping him on the face and telling him to get himself home and cleaned up. They had a funeral to attend.

He dragged himself home in the 7 o’clock dawn. He knew he was being stared at, his clothes bloody and himself tagged looking. When he got in he didn't even care as he practically peeled His layers of clothes off, bloodstained as they were. He got back to the washroom and saw himself in the mirror. His hair, face and neck had sections of his brother’s dried blood. His hands and under his nails had the Italian’s. Tears welled in his eyes as he wet a rag and scrubbed his bare body. He reflected on the night before. His brother’s near death, unsure why Tommy would let people think Arthur dead. 

After Finn had scrubbed himself clean, he laid down in his bed and his mind started to drift in an attempt to think of more positive things. His mind flashed to Estelle the night before. His eyes snapped open and he sat straight up. “FUCK,” he exclaimed as he scrambled to find clothes. He scolded himself “Goddamn have I messed up.”

His phone rang. When Finn answered it was Polly telling him the time and location of where Arthur’s ‘funeral’ was going to be. Finn said he would be there and bit his cheek. Life would be so much easier if Tommy would just tell him why he wanted them to perform strange and unusual tasks instead of waiting until everything was over to explain himself. This blindly trusting shit was getting old. He checked his watch. “I have some time,” he thought and set out to run an errand before the funeral.

He got to Lizzie’s house with a small bouquet and an expression of shame in preparation for the anger sure to follow, but to his surprise, no one was home. He had been smart enough to have the florist attach a note to the flowers with an apology. “Estelle must be with Lizzie dealing with this funeral business,” he thought. He set the flowers on the doormat and left to go attend to business.


	4. Chapter 4

Estelle’s side of the story didn’t paint that night in a good light. She hadn't quite known what to do about the invitation she had gotten from Mr. Shelby. After Finn had left she went upstairs to Lizzie’s room and knocked. Once she’d goten Lizzies permission to enter, she stepped in to see her friend looking like a magazine cover. Estelle explained the conversation she had just had to Lizzie as Liz slipped on her shoes. Lizzie’s reaction wasn't exactly what Estelle had expected.

“Aren't you glad I made you come shopping with me this morning now?” Lizzie cheerfully said. 

“I beg your pardon”

“Well what would you have worn? You can't say no to an invitation by a blinder.”

“A blinder?”

“A Shelby”

“Is that what happened to you?” Estelle asked. 

Lizzie froze for a second. She knew Estelle hadn’t meant harm in the comment but reflecting back, that was exactly what happened to Lizzie. She had accepted every invitation made by both Tommy and even John all those years ago. And now she was just the pregnant secretary. She would be living in that new house alone if it hadn’t been for Estelle happening to show up. And even Estelle got a visitor when Tommy hadn’t even spoken to her since she told him about the baby. All these thoughts managed to cross Lizzie’s mind in only a heartbeat before she answered, “No”

“Well if I’ve got to go, is there anything else you would like me to do before you go and I start getting ready?”

Lizzie smiled at Estelle, “No, but if you would like, you can use my makeup over there on the vanity. You’ve seen how I do it, right?”

“Yes, Ma’am”

“Oh you know you can call me Lizzie.”

They both turned at the door bell ringing and Estelle hastened to let Polly in. Polly herself looked quite nice and touched Estelle’s arm gently as she passed. Lizzie was halfway down the stairs herself when Polly addressed her. 

“Come on, we’ve still got to get Linda.”

A moment later they said their goodbyes to Estelle and left her to do as she would. Estelle sat for a minute in the living room thinking about whether or not Lizzie’s statement about having to go was serious. Would Mr. Shelby really be upset if she didn’t go? Really what could he do about it. And then she remembered the fact that she wouldn’t even be in a house if he hadn’t intervened just a couple of days prior. One sporting event wasn’t going to kill anyone.

Estelle went to her room and opened one of the boxes on the bed. Lizzie had taken Estelle along shopping that day. Primarily for furniture for the new house but they had slipped into a clothing store as well, where Lizzie had insisted on buying a few dresses for Estelle since Estelle’s personal clothes looked “practically Victorian” as Lizzie had put it. Estelle liked the light fabric. Most of her clothes were heavy wool type knits but Lizzie had told her this was some kind of silk, to make it easier for women to move. She slipped the shapeless green dress on and went into Lizzie’s room. She thought more and more about Finn Shelby as she brushed on the mascara on and attempted to use Lizzies eye kohl. She laughed at herself in the mirror. The amount of black around her eyes made them almost look yellow. She wiped some of it off with a nearby napkin. Lizzie had also laughed herself into tears this morning at Estelle when she tried on a the very same dress she was wearing now and saw Estelle’s underarm hair. When they had gotten home Lizzie had shown her how to use a razor to shave it off. These weren’t things her grandmother had practiced or taught Estelle but Estelle was more than willing to try just about anything Ada or Lizzie could have thrown her way. 

Lizzie had left a note on the vanity telling Estelle who to ask the operator for on the telephone. Apparently it was a service just to move people from place to place. Estelle made the call and gave the address and in about 15 minutes the car arrived. The driver asked where she needed to go and Estelle gave the name of the venue listed on the ticket Finn had given her. 

She paid the driver when she got to the venue and started inside, a gruff looking man spoke to her. 

“What are you doing here, the fight’s halfway over” the man said, “I can’t let you in now.”

Estelle decided to test something. It had become obvious that the Shelby name carried some weight. She held the ticket out to the man, “But Mr. Shelby told me to come, even if I was late.” 

It worked. His demeanor immediately changed. “I haven’t seen you before. But if you let me just check you for weapons, drugs, that sort of thing, I’ll let you in.”

“Why would I have any of that?”

“Ma’am could you just please”

Estelle passed his inspection with flying colors: all she had was her house key. She stepped by and followed the sound of a crowd. She found them. An auditorium full of sweaty drunken men shouting about to sweaty sober men fighting on a stage. She wasn’t going into the middle of that. She set herself up along that wall next to the exit. She couldn’t see where Lizzie was, but in a minute she saw that the man walking her way was Mr. Shelby. She smiled softly at his approach. She liked how he’d dressed up. 

The first thing he said to her proved the fruit of her labor worthwhile, complimenting her appearance. She was sure anyone else in the room would have made some vulgar remark. She returned the favor and tried to start in “Mr. Shelby I wanted to thank you for helping me”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, ”So what do you think of your first boxing match.” 

Estelle watched him look at the boxers and cringe. She didn’t see why. And they talked for a moment about the boxers. Her distaste for the crowd must have shown when she asked where she could find Lizzie. He told her to go outside and he would be there in a minute so they could talk a bit easier. Honestly she was glad. This really wasn’t an event she enjoyed. So she stepped outside and waited. And waited. And then she heard a gunshot. And then three more.

Her heart dropped into her stomach. That had to have come from inside. She was sick with worry. It was quiet after that, no one was rushing to leave the building. Estelle found this even more alarming than the gunshots. It couldn’t be safe for her to stay out there. Or in there. She started back the route that the car she had been brought in had taken to get her there. 

Before even 30 minutes had passed, she was lost. She wandered for a while looking for anything familiar in the dark. After about an hour of that she saw a building she recognized. She walked up to the door and read the sign. SHELBY COMPANY LTD.

Thank god. She knew how to get to Ada’s from there. She walked the short distance to Ada’s and knocked on the door. Ada’s son answered in his pajamas. The governess quickly put herself between Karl and the door, scolding him. 

“I’m sorry ma’am but the lady of the house is out.” the governess said.

“I know. I was just at the same event she was but I got lost on my way home. Can I come in just until she gets here?” 

“That’s Miss Estelle, remember?” Karl piped up from behind the governess. His recognition of her made the governess relent and let Estelle in. 

“Karl, go up to your bed, I’ll be there in a minute,” the older woman said. Karl pouted but obeyed, waving goodnight to Estelle. The woman turned back to Estelle. “Why are you here? I mean, if you’re Ms. Ada’s friend, you should have come back with her.”  
Estelle’s concern for her friends returned instantly, remembering the gun shots she had heard. “I was just outside the venue for a minute and heard gunshots inside. I don’t know what happened, but I was the only one that panicked to leave the place. I haven’t seen anyone since.”

The governess shook her head. “Ma’am, I want to believe you but I wasn’t supposed to let in anyone I didn’t recognize anyway. I sincerely hope no one has been hurt like you’ve led me to believe, but if someone has, then I can’t let you be here anyway.” And just as quickly as she had let Estelle in, she let Estelle right back out. Estelle stood on the doorstep for a minute thinking about what to do and came to the conclusion that it would be better to go back to the company headquarters and wait ‘til morning rather than wait for the governess to call the police on here for being on the doorstep. 

When she got there she sat on the step, thinking about how miserable of a situation she was in. A car started down the road in front of her and slowed to a stop in front of her. A tall man stepped out and approached her. 

“Are you a whore?” he asked in a strange accent, made stranger by the toothpick hanging out of his mouth.

“No,” Estelle answered, offended at the suggestion. 

“What are you doing here then? You see, normally I wouldn’t stop on my way home to speak to a woman on the street at night. But you set up shop on the Shelby doorstep, and that is of particular interest to me”

“Are you a friend of the Shelby’s?”

“You could say that. Listen. Are you gonna be stuck here all night?”

“Only until I can get ahold of Finn Shelby to slap him for leaving me on the street when there is gunfire” Estelle said bitterly.

The man laughed, “Come on, he’ll get his soon enough. But tonight I’ll show you a little Italian hospitality. It’s too cold for a child like you to be out here all night. No harm will come to you and my mother will be there in case you’re worried about your honor.” 

Estelle had nothing to lose and got into the car with the man. A few other men also sat in the car cutting up with each other in what Estelle assumed was Italian. She closed her eyes for a second in the car and the next thing she knew, it was morning.

She sat up from on a couch. A woman was smoking at a table a few feet away. 

“Good, you’re up,” the woman said,” you must not be a very bright one to have fallen asleep in the company of 4 strange men. For some reason my Luca pitied you. But you have to be gone in a minute. We aren’t quite supposed to have visitors. Now where do you belong?” the woman said. 

Estelle told the woman her address and the woman nodded.

“I’ll take you there but you gotta promise to keep your eyes closed, and hold your tongue about where you’ve been. As far as anyone is concerned you stayed lost on the street all night. I had to run an errand that direction anyhow”

Estelle agreed with the woman’s terms, knowing better than to ask questions she didn’t want answers to. So when they got to the car, Estelle closed her eyes and got in, sitting silently until the car stopped. 

“Alright get out.”

Estelle kept her eyes shut until she was out of the car. When she opened them she was on the end of the street of her new home. Walking up to her house she picked up a bouquet on the steps. “That man better not think this makes what he did okay. I just had the worst night of my life. And that was coupled with probably the strangest interaction I’ve ever had with another living being” She entered her house, Lizzie wasn’t even home. Estelle put the flowers in the kitchen sink with a little water and went to the washroom.

She looked absolutely ghoulish. Her makeup was smeared back into looking like a raccoon, her clothes were dirty, she was dirty. She drew the water into the tub next to her a couple of inches deep while she grabbed a rag to wash with. Between the lack of sleep, the uncertainty of where her friends were, and her own state, Estelle started to cry silent tears while she cleaned herself. When she got dressed she heard the front door open and shut. Lizzie had just got in. 

The two girls hugged when they saw each other. Estelle started asking questions rapidfire to Lizzie who had walked in in all black. 

“Estelle I’m so sorry,” Lizzie began, “Last night was a nightmare for everybody. There was no looking for anyone.” She began to explain what had happened. Arthur’s death and how nobody had been allowed to leave until Tommy and a few others personally checked everyone to find the killers and dealing with Linda that night 

“Who did it?” Estelle asked, mortified by all this information. 

“Some Italian men that really hate the Shelby’s”

Estelle’s blood ran cold with the memory of the strangers that hosted her. They had to be the same people. 

“Finn asked about you at the funeral,” Lizzie said, “That was when he and I realized that neither of us knew where you were. But when the killer’s mother showed up, that became the priority. That’s where I just was. I’m so glad to see you got home though. Where did you go last night?”

“I got lost”


	5. Chapter 5

Finn stood and watched as his brother and the Changretta woman discussed business coldly. Honestly at the funeral, no one had told him whether or not it was legitimate. Arthur really might have died overnight. Finn zoned out during the meeting until he heard Changretta point out his brothers’ deaths. Tommy didn’t even flinch as he admitted the families would be even. Finn turned his head to watch his brother actually say that it was fine that their brothers were dead. He pursed his lips as he listened to the woman audaciously demand all of the shelby family assets and Tommy just allow it. But he wasn’t like John or Arthur. Finn could keep a straight face in most every situation. Tommy always had some whit up his sleeve to handle situations like this. His thoughts drifted again. Back when we was learning poker Ada remarked that if he and Tommy were to play together it would be the most boring game in the world due to them both being able to not even twitch a muscle of their straight faces. By the time he refocused, the meeting was over. Polly told Finn to go back home because he still looked dead tired. Three hours of sleep wasn’t enough for any teenager. 

Finn did as he was told and managed to sleep through the rest of the afternoon and into the night. His dreams were vague and summed up to a collection of possible outcomes for the events of the past few days. Quite a few options were shown but the one that stuck with him when he woke wasn’t the idea of success in the vendetta in full, taking out Changretta and gaining all his business, nor was it the idea of losing everything, down to his life. The flash of a possible future he saw was one where Tommy did end up losing the family everything. Finn remembered when they weren’t wealthy, regardless of what they all thought; when they were just gypsies that all managed to get into a living arrangement that wasn’t on four wheels. And the way his brothers were hardworking and happy. His sister-in-law Martha hadn’t lived to see the wealth the Shelby’s had grown to, but before the war she and John were very happy, three kids and little money. Finn dreamed of being in a similar state. Coming home to his small apartment to a couple toddlers running to greet him, having just been in the old betting offices helping his brothers. In the dream, he stepped into the kitchen to a woman with a baby on her hip as she turned to hand off the child to Finn. He couldn’t mistake those hazel eyes and kissed Estelle softly on the lips. But that was the end of that flash of dream. 

He checked the watch on his nightstand when he woke. He had forgotten all about her in his sleep deprivation and all the bullshit of the past 36 hours. He had to see her. He didn’t even know if she had made it home. Last he heard no one knew. 11 at night wasn’t too late to show up at a girl’s house right? 

Apparently it was. Because when he got there, all the lights were out. He picked up a couple small rocks tossed them at the upstairs window, not wanting to wake the entire house. After the 3rd rock he saw a light turn on and the window open. 

“Finn, for god’s sake she sleeps on the first floor!” Lizzie hissed out her window. 

“So she’s home?” Finn asked in relief and hope.  
Lizzie softened in remembrance of Finn’s concern for her friend. She sighed. “Yes, let me get her for you, but don’t make a habit of this, okay?” Finn waited at the front door for a few minutes before it opened. He felt a hug before he could even tell Estelle hello.

“Mr. Shelby, I’m so sorry about your brother,” she said, stepping back. Finn could have lived in that moment forever. No one ever embraced him. Most of his family considered affection to be grabbing him by the shoulder from an arm’s length away, even when he was a child. 

“Don’t worry about that,” he said, “are you alright? I don’t know what happened to you last night after everything went awry.”

“Well I’m standing here aren’t I?”

“Well yes but you weren’t here this morning when I brought the apology flowers”

“Mr. Shelby, don’t you remember when we met? How lost I was? Now imagine that, in the dark, in the part of town where shots ring out at public events. It took a while to find my way here” 

“I promise I’ll explain everything to you tomorrow. Everything will be over by tomorrow evening and i’ll be able to tell you so much. I’m sorry you caught the short end of the stick here” Finn felt guilty and reached to cup the cheek of this girl that had already put up with too much of his family’s nonsense. Her adaptability amazed him. He glanced her over after she shivered. She had answered the door in a silk nightgown, in the middle of winter. He’d only ever seen one other woman in this little an amount of clothing. And he didn’t like the thoughts aroused from the sight of her body so bare. He handed off his own personal coat, bracing in the cold night air.  
“I don’t know if I should trust that, Mr. Shelby” Estelle laughed. Blushing at his gesture of handing off his coat, his warm residing inside.

“Would you mind me giving you a reason to know I mean what I say?” Finn asked, heart pounding for how she was going to answer. It beat for her, She had every reason not to, but his emotion had developed with almost unhealthy speed. He didn’t even know what the morning would hold or if he’d see her again since his family didn’t bother to tell him any damn plans. 

Estelle’s only response was an expectation of confusion of confusion and anticipation to what he would do. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into a deep dip for a kiss, pressing his lips to hers not forcefully, but tenderly to the literal girl of his dream. He stood her up proper again. She stared at him wide eyed and blushing like a tomato. 

“I saw it at the pictures once and always wanted to kiss a pretty girl that way” Finn grinned, trying to explain his eccentric behavior. 

Estelle handed his coat back, looked him dead in the eye and said, “I trust you.” 

Finn watched her shut the door and knew if everything went to shit in the morning, at least he had that moment and no one could take it from him.

 

Finn woke up the next morning with a morbid reality in front of him. He seldom had time to laze in bed. But as he had had a combined 16 hours of sleep, for once he had no issue getting out of bed. It was 7 in the morning and the sun hadn’t even begun to rise. Finn got ready and made his way to meet his family in where he assumed would be Tommy’s office. When he got there Polly greeted him with what was probably the grimmest “good morning” Finn had ever heard in his life. 

“You wouldn’t happen to have any tea here this morning, would you?” Finn asked his brother and Aunt, both of whom were smoking.  
“There’s gin in the cabinet, you can have some of that,” Tommy said, deadpan.

Finn just stared at Tommy for a minute. “Because that’s the same fucking thing” Finn thought. Sometimes he could really just smack Tommy, but that was Polly’s job. Tommy continued speaking since Finn had nothing to say.

“Right well this is how it’s going to work” Tommy began, explaining the course of events that were about to happen at 10 o’clock at their meeting with the Changretta’s. Tommy’s main point was that no matter what happened. They had to maintain their poker faces. And so they went onto the meeting thereafter.

Finn stood with them in the distillery waiting for the Italians to make their appearance. Finn had calmed down since Tommy had assured he and Polly that they were set and the meeting was rigged. So he relaxed as the Italians strutted into the room. “Always having to make an entrance,” Finn thought, “I wonder if they lined up outside the door and talked about what the most badass way to enter the room was” He almost smiled at the thought of that conversation. He hardly listened to the conversation between Changretta and his brother but shifted slightly toward his brother defensively as Changretta forced Tommy to his knees. Finn didn’t understand why this Italian fuck had to have everything so dramatic. Who was it for? There was only the few of them in the room, but this is when Tommy unfolded his own dramatic scheme that he had explained to Finn only a bit before. Finn could hear Tommy’s smile in his voice, even if he couldn’t see his brothers face. He watched Changretta’s face as Tommy and Polly back and forthed Changretta’s loss. 

And then Changretta pulled a gun on Tommy and they started to brawl. Polly literally stepped back to avoid being hit by Changretta, who was beating Tommy with a stick. Finn gripped his hand gun by his side and waited for Polly to motion for him to end this nonsense. But she didn’t and by that point Tommy was beating Changretta’s face on a table littered with broken glass and spilled gin. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a few more men enter the room. Arthur, looking a picture of health walked in the room. Tommy hadn’t been considerate enough to explain that tiny detail of the plan to Finn. Finn would have been pissed if it hadn’t been for his shock and the fact that in only the time it took Tommy to stand Changretta up, Arthur shot him. Finn stepped forward and stared at the body as Tommy ordered the Italians out.

Finn grit his teeth and glared as his brother. “He wants me to be a man in the family but can’t even be fucked to tell my my brother is fine and here.” Finn’s anger was stemmed from the shock and disgust of the last 2 minutes. After the Italians left, Arthur stepped forward and grabbed Finn by the shoulder in grim celebration of the end of the nightmare that was the past few months. Finn wasn’t gonna let them know they had phased him. 

“You know you just ruined all that gin with Italian blood right?” Finn said, successfully lightening the mood, even with a body on the floor. His family laughed for a second before Tommy chimed in:

“You’re right but it’s worth it to have this all over,” Tommy said, “Now everyone go home. We have a celebration to attend tonight”


	6. Chapter 6

Estelle was a bundle of nerves all that night and the following morning. So much so that by noon, Lizzie had made her take three glasses of gin, and yet Estelle still managed to spill the bucket of soapy water she had filled to wash the upstairs floor, all the way down the stairs. Her work was lacklustre in every way. She had the kindness and affection of all these new people, friends, and even a boy vying for her affection. But she had also accidentally come across the man that killed family of this troupe of kind people. When they found out they were surely going to turn her out.

Around noon, the phone the phone rang in the house. Estelle answered and before she could say hello, a mans raspy voice came through.

“Lizzie, put on a nice dress and be at my house by 7 tonight. We’ve come back from today and are all going to celebrate. Don’t bother having a fire lit in your room tonight, you’ll be staying here.”

Estelle was thrown off by the brazenness of whoever this man was, calling her friend and being so disrespectful. “Excuse me, but who is this?” she said almost venomously.

“Who the fuck are you?” the man replied, “wait, you’re that hired girl of Lizzie’s. Just tell her what I just said. Verbatim.”

“And who should I say called?”

“Tommy, but to you that’s Mr. Shelby,” and with that, he hung up. 

The name Shelby twisted Estelle’s gut again with guilt. She hung up the telephone and sought out Lizzie to tell her what she had been told. Lizzie laughed at Estelle’s scathing review of their conversation.

“Estelle do you know who that is, don’t you?” Lizzie grinned. 

“Please tell me that this Mr. Shelby isn’t Mr. Shelby’s father”

Lizzie started laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face. When she halfway regained her composure she spoke again, “No. Tommy and Finn aren’t father and son, they’re brothers.” she cleared her throat and tried to straighten her face, “but Tommy is the father of this little Miss Shelby.” She placed her hand on her lower abdomen. 

“Oh!” Estelle said, wide-eyed at the thought that she had just spoken ill of the man that paid her. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, you’ve just said what everyone else is too afraid to. I won’t tell. But I will ask you to help me pick out a dress.”   
Estelle grew anxious thinking about the transgressions she had made toward everyone.And she started thinking about what she would do when they inevitably found out. And Estelle felt truly homesick for the first time. She had dreaded the thought of her home without Nana Mary. But home had never presented itself as anything but stable.

By the time evening rolled around she had gotten an apology from Lizzie that she couldn’t also go to the party, but that she hoped that Estelle would have a lovely evening and to treat herself to some wine and a hot bath and so on and so forth. And then she was off to Mr. Shelby’s house. 

She tried to keep busy and distracted. From cleaning, to trying to read one of Lizzie’s dime novels. Unfortunately, Estelle struggled to read. She always thought the letters were too blurry and when she lived with Nana Mary, Nana Mary would be the one to read aloud. She finally gave up and sat in her room a bit, ever trying to process all the things she was dealing with. And the she pulled out her purse and looked over the little bit she had. Lizzie had insisted on paying her in advance and Estelle hadn’t really gone anywhere to spend it.

So once again she phoned a cab service to come get her and asked him to take her to her previous address. She left a note in the living room in case Lissie did decide she wanted to come home rather than stay at Mr. Shelby’s. And let the cab head toward her former home. 

When they got there the driver pulled off as soon as she stepped out of the cab, she had paid the fair on her way. Nevermind the fact that he was leaving her without a way back. But Estelle just kinda watched with a look of exasperation as the cab drove away. She sighed and turned to her house. When she reached the door she noticed a very large padlock on it. “Of course the bank would do this,” Estelle thought, “I’m such an idiot. I’m stuck ages from town and can’t even get in. Jesus where has my sense gone.” Estelle went around the back of the house to look at the garden she had left it unmaintained for a little bit now. It wasn’t quite yet the season for blooms, And so she stared at the fallow dirt. Linen still hung on the clothesline from a week ago and the breaze made the fabric sway. Overall, it seemed barren and desolate, and not the warm comforting place it had been while she was growing up. 

There was no moon that night, so overcast that there was no light, no stars. Just the dark and the wind. Estelle sat in the rocking chair that Nana Mary kept in the yard for days that she felt like working in the sun. She even fell asleep that way, with the tilt and lull of the chair relaxing her. 

She woke to the sound of a horse approaching. When she opened her eyes, in the darkness she saw the shape of a man on a horse. The man hopped down and tied the horse at the fence. She watched Finn approach her.

“You know, you’ve really got to stop wandering off.” he said, “one day we won’t be able to find you” 

“Maybe one day you won’t want to,” Estelle replied.

“Estelle, it's two in the morning. Why are you all the way out here?”

“It was 9 when I left. And I- I wanted to come home. Not for long. I just missed it. But there's a lock on the door. So I can't get in.”

Finn kissed her very softly. When he pulled his face away he had this huge grin that melted Estelle’s heart. 

“I can fix that.” he said and pulled a couple of tiny metal sticks out of his pocket. “Come here and hold a match up to the lock so I can see what I'm doing”

“Mr Shelby, when did you learn to pick locks?”

“Its Finn. And John taught me when I was 4. Besides, as you see, it's quite useful” Finn said as she struck a match from his jacket pocket. 

When they got in she lit an oil lamp. The house was just as she left it. She turned to Finn. “How did you know where I was?”

“You left a note”

“In my house”

Finn shrugged with a cheeky grin on his face. 

“And I didn't put the address on it”

“But you told the coroner”

“You remember that?” Estelle asked, surprised. 

“Dollface, I remember every word that comes out of your mouth.” he kissed her again. 

Estelle had come to realize that this not was head over heels in love with her. And she had to tell him the truth. 

“Mr Shelby, I met the Italian man that killed your brother on the night it happened”

Finn smiled a little. 

“Why are you smiling? I just said that-”

“I heard what you said dollface. But that man is dead now and my brother is not. I haven't had the opportunity to explain everything yet. But that's not an issue”

Estelle was dumbstruck. She’d been worried about this for what felt like forever and here he was, telling her that there had literally been nothing to be worried about. “You’re not upset?” she asked.

“Dollface, unless you’re about to tell me you were plotting my brother’s death with him, then you are only one of a number of people in Birmingham that have met Luca Changretta. The man has been in town for over a month trying to kill everyone in the family. Now I told you you can ask me anything.”

“What did your family do to earn that kind of wrath?” estelle broached.

“We killed his brother and father.”

“I’m not going to ask why, but what is your family involved in that gets you into all this trouble when I know you have a legal, legitimate business?”

“Gambling, liquor, the works. At the base it is legal but Tommy likes to branch out in ways that tend to cause trouble. Eventually it works out. And then other times it doesn’t. You heard about Arthur’s ‘death’ but in all reality, my other brother John was killed on Christmas. And when he died, his wife took the children on the road. That’s seven family members gone in a week. Esme didn’t even stick around for the funeral. And then there was Tommy’s wife, Grace. Grace was shot within a few months of their wedding. The bullet wasn’t even meant for her. Both Michael and Arthur were hurt pretty badly. But Tommy is level headed enough to always make things work out somehow. No one has anything against us now, so we’ll be safe. It’s never been an ongoing thing.”

“And how would I know that we wouldn’t get hurt if you and I went any further with this?” Estelle asked.

“Because I would never let anything even come close to hurting you, dollface. Now can i take you home or are you dead set on being considered a squatter in your own home?” Finn answered. 

“I just hate the idea that someone else has my home. And everything in it.”

“Wait one second” Finn walked out of the house for a moment and came back in with a very large bag. 

“Finn, what on earth do you have that for?”

“Well you were coming home one way or the other, but since you’re calling me Finn now, I don’t see that being an issue. So instead, you’re going to take anything you want from this house as long as it fits in this bag.” 

And so they excitedly went through the house dumping out things from drawers, her grandmother’s few bits of jewelry, some silverware, and a few other things. Finally estelle got to a desk drawer her grandmother had kept locked, saying she had lost the key. But once again, Finn came to the rescue and opening the drawers found more paper than the bible had pages, Estelle dumped the whole thing in to the bag swearing up and down to go through every scrap. 

 

“If you want estelle, we can make sure no one else gets this house. But first i have to ask if there is anything else here that you could want.” Finn asked. Estelle kissed him this time, her untamed joy and sleep deprivation pulling her to him. 

“Not a thing. You’ve given me all I could have asked.” 

“Is there any more lamp oil here?”

“Yes, a gallon.” Estelle said, pointing at the place it was kept. 

“That’s not much but it will do. Now let’s take this bag out to the horse and we’ll take care of this.” he said, throwing the bag out of his shoulder and taking it to strap to the horses back. He also took Estelle’s hand and led her outside as well. 

Estelle watched him walk in the house and come back out a moment later trailing what wash left in the gallon of oil up to Estelle’s feet. He extended his hand to her, holding the matchbook. 

“Shall you do the honors, or shall I?” 

Estelle took them from his hand, struck a match, and lit the trail of oil. In the next few minutes, her house was up in flames. It was like nothing she had ever seen. 25 feet high flames reached into the sky. 

“Come on dollface, we gotta be out of here in case someone comes to investigate”

Estelle let Finn help her onto his horse and they reached Lizzie's about 4 in the morning, where Finn took Estelle’s bag of stuff to her room, kissed her goodnight and left. Estelle couldn’t imagine a night more like a dream and went to bed happier than sunshine.


	7. Chapter 7

Finn woke up with a smile on his face, regardless of his lingering headache from Tommy’s party the night before. How on earth did he manage to find the one sane woman in Birmingham that was willing to go as far as burn down her own childhood home with him. A girl that grew up without Small Heath in her lungs and no preceding knowledge of the Shelby family reputation that demolished any nice girl’s interest in involvement. 

Of course if he wanted, Finn could have had any whore he fancied by mentioning his name alone, but after the way his sister and aunt had used his virginity as a mean of entertainment by making him ‘be a man’ with the prostitute they had rounded up. It wasn’t that he didn’t respect the woman, but it sure as hell wasn’t fun being with someone he didn’t trust and being his first time, the word stamina couldn’t even have been said in the short amount of time he had lasted with her. 

There was no rush to be in to work today, surely even Arthur hadn’t gone in, despite declaring himself in charge while Tommy took holiday for a bit. So Finn took his time laying in bed. Eventually he made himself roll out and get dressed. He knew he had no food at all in the house and lamented that he hasn't even bothered with getting any at all since moving in. There wasn't even coffee or tea. So questioning his common sense, he decided his pick me up was going to be one line from a small vial of cocaine he kept on the dresser of his room. Five years of occasional use still hadn't proven to be addictive to him, unlike his poor brother that never seemed to be able to stop anything he started. The razor in his hat once again was made use of on the table lining up the fine powder. 

When it kicked in he got himself dressed and out to Ada’s, he hardly said a passing hello before raiding her pantry and listening to her chastise him about how ‘all teenage boys do is eat and get themselves off’ and that ‘if he’s going to visit for food he could at least call first.’ 

“You got blow on your nose Finn.,” she pointed out, “you’re not gonna go see that girlfriend of yours like that are you?”

“No, Ada. I’m working today.”

“Finn it’s 10:30”

“Better late than never.”

“Well wipe your nose first, I don’t want Karl to see you like that”

Finn wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt, blow was white anyway, and he had given his handkerchief to Estelle. 

But he earned Ada’s forgiveness for showing up high and hungry when he spent the following hour playing with Karl, even when Karl wanted Finn to read to him, and Finn kept messing up the bigger words and having to be corrected by Karl. Finn hated that he’d never gotten a formal education. And here Karl was, getting a private one. 

The boy would probably even be the first to really attend university and be an incredible oxymoron to his name by using all the advantages capitalism had been affording him. Karl would be the first in the family to truly benefit from all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears of his family without so much as a threat made toward him. Finn’s brothers didn’t start up into the real danger until they were grown but Finn could remember at least 3 near death experiences in his childhood by the time he was 10 years old. But with the business dealt with the day before, the future only seemed built for prosperity rather than peril. Finn knew that one day when his own son was born, the child would know none of the rough edges he had himself grown with, and his own son would also be able to fucking read properly. 

He shook his head leaving Ada’s and leaving these thoughts behind with Ada and Karl before heading in to work, where he was the only Shelby to show up that day and ran the whole joint by himself, attending to all the managers Tommy would have dealt with. It was a lot of paperwork to go through and he had to borrow Tommy’s replacement secretary to help him read and sift through it, between both legitimate and new illegitimate business. Finn even got to learn about his cousin being shipped off to New york to handle the business there in the Shelby family name, yet another thing no one had bothered to tell him. But at least that was one less person in the family he was supposed to be subordinate to. Before the day was out he had handled probably 50 things handled that had been put on delay since the boxing match between Aberama Gold’s kid and Alfie Solomons’ nephew. One fun conversation was what to do with all the gin ruined by Arthur killing Changretta. Gallons if it no longer fit to be sold and poured out on the floor. The rest of the massive still had to be emptied, patched, and cleaned before it could be used again. 

With all that garbage handled, Arthur’s rule over the company would be as easy as breathing. “Now I understand why Tommy drinks so goddamn much,” he thought when he finally managed to get out of the office. He said goodbye to all the other managers he had come in contact with that day, many of whom were older and grew up treating Finn like their own little brother up til now. 

He practically collapsed onto his bed with a bottle of gin he had taken from work, flicking on a lamp and grabbing something else he had gotten that day, a copy of the newspaper. He was going to read it if it killed him. It took a few hours, but he did manage to read the first article. By the time he got to the end of it, he had forgotten what the beginning was about. It didn’t matter to him though. He would never have admitted it to Estelle but it had taken 30 minutes for him to read her note, not because of the length, moreso because it was hand-written. Most of what Finn had learned to read was in typeface. He had had to find someone to give him a piece of paper to write down her address in order to know what to look for. It thoroughly embarrassed him and he wasn’t going to let his lack of an education make things even more difficult should Estelle go off again. He wouldn’t have even gone after her the night before if he didn’t realize she had lacked the common sense that said that she had no way to get back once being dropped off. And the fact that she had apparently spent a night with the fucking Changrettas because she didn’t know her way around and he hadn’t been there for her. What she knew in book smarts had clearly been taken from the same pot that street smarts would have pulled from in that she was obviously very smart to finn, but lacked all sense in things that mattered here in Small Heath. She had been lucky that some bum hadn’t taken her in an alleyway when she got lost. Finn knew she would be able to learn that stuff in time though, whereas he would have to put effort in to make up for this lack of knowledge. And this was step one. 

The next day was his turn to play hooky. He phoned the office and told Arthur that since he hadn’t shown the day before that he was taking a skip day. It wasn’t like Arthur could say anything about it. So he spent the day hanging out with Isaiah in a boxing ring, listening to Isaiah talk about some chick he had started hooking up with. Finn thought about how he was going to spend the evening and how he could visit Estelle soon. He went home to shower and shave before heading down to Lizzie’s house. 

When he got there, he greeted Lizzie in the den where she was taking tea and reading, and in return she didn’t even look up with him, but instead told him that Estelle was in the kitchen working on dishes from dinner. Finn slipped back to the kitchen and tiptoed up to Estelle, whose back was turned to him, her hair tied in a messy knot on the top of her head, and kissed her neck softly, wrapping his arms around her. He loved that she was starting to return his affection and she even kissed his cheek as she finished up a dish and said hello. 

“I’ve gotten done putting away most of the things we took night before last,” she said, “all that’s left is all those papers from that drawer. Would you like to help me go through them and see what needs keeping and what doesn’t”

“Of course,” Finn said, but what he meant, and what he thought was “Fuck”

Yet they went back to her room, leaving the door open so that there would be no suspicion, as Estelle put it, and poured out the papers from the bag onto the floor between them. They sat and began their filtering, Estelle going through a series of old letters and documents, Finn doing the same when he pulled out a small, unmarked envelope. Estelle was upset to find that most of the letters were from her mother before her death, all asking about her. She stood up to go wash her face, the same red around her eyes like the tears left when Finn first met her.

“Do you want me to come with you?” he asked, holding her hand. 

“No,” she said, “Don’t worry about it.” She stepped out of the room.

Finn continued as he waited for her to return. He opened the yellowed paper of the envelope in his hand and took a minute to read the card. It was a note by Estelle’s mother. It said, “This is Estelle’s father. Make sure she knows who we are, and that back then, I wasn’t in the situation I am now. She will never get to meet him, since he moved on, but let her have this photo when she is old enough. It is the only one of him and I together. Love, Janine.”

Finn was about to tell Estelle when he flipped over the picture and saw who the father was, freezing immediately. His heart skipped a beat with his following thought: “I know this man”

He tucked the picture into his breast pocket just as Estelle re-entered the room. 

“What was in that one?” she asked. 

“Nothing,” Finn said, “it was empty.” He flicked the now empty envelope across the room.

“I can’t believe Nana Mary kept all this from me,” she said, moving on to the next papers. Finn listened to her monologue about how it had been such a betrayal as she kept reading the letters. He wasn’t paying attention to detail though. His only thought pounded in his head about what to do about knowing her father. How on earth could he tell her, or even if he should. He resolved that as soon as he left the house he was going to Tommy’s. Tommy was the only one he knew would have a clear head and answer. 

Of course he didn’t get to leave that quickly. And the situation got about 3 times worse, when Estelle found another letter from her mother, asking if Mary had received the picture of herself and Estelle’s father. Finn watched Estelle nearly drive herself mad flying through each scrap of paper to find the photo before she sunk into a depression. This was when Finn made his exit. He knew Estelle wanted to be alone. It was already 8 o’clock anyway.

Finn went and fetched one of the family cars, driving it very poorly and a little recklessly to Tommy’s. Tommy was sitting in his living room with Charlie on his lap, reading to him a Grimm’s story. Finn did a little double take. He hadn’t seen his brother like this since it was him that was sitting in Tommy’s lap, listening to stories. Of course back then, bedtime stories were about the shenanigans that his brothers got into and not so much children in candy houses. 

“Tommy, I need your advice.”

“About what, Finn. This is supposed to be my holiday”

“About a girl.”

“Go ask Arthur.”

“No this is a bit more delicate than that.”

Tommy set down Charlie beside him, letting him flip around the book pages. “Is this the same one from last week? The one working for Lizzie?”  
“Yes”

“I swear this better be good, boy”

Finn began to explain what all had happened with Estelle, starting with the arson. He finished the story by saying that going through the papers he found a picture of Estelle’s father. Finn handed over the photograph to Tommy rather than saying the man’s name out loud.

Tommy looked at the photo, read the back, looked at Finn, and then back down at the photo. He finally spoke, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding with me”


	8. Chapter 8

Estelle’s sleep had been horrible, if you could even call it sleep. She had even gone as far as to wake Lizzie in the middle of the night crying over it. She had explained to Lizzie about the papers earlier and how they were from her house but not priority when they had gone to retrieve her things the week before. Lizzie, sleepy and putting her friend, came up with a few suggestions, none of which would work. 

“Well why not just go back in the morning and search the house for the picture”

“We can't, Lizzie.”

“Why not”

“Because we burnt it down”

Lizzie’s head had started to bob as she fought sleep, but this perked her right up. “Estelle why did you burn your house down?”

“Finn and I had taken everything of value and Finn said it was the best way to make sure no one else got it. It was very in-the-moment”

“Estelle, you do realize this family is riddled with arson charges. And you live with us. That was your house that was burnt. I'm surprised a copper hasn't come knocking on our door for you.”

“Arson. You're saying I could be accused of arson?”

“Well did you torch bank property?”

“... Yes”

“Well darling, that's arson”

Estelle panicked. This was just getting worse and worse. And her incredible upset was keeping a pregnant woman up as the cherry on the cake. 

“Take this Estelle: it helps. You'll be able to sleep.”

Estelle read the label on it, it listed its ingredients: cannabis, chloroform, alcohol, and morphine. It sounded disgusting. But she took a swig of the cough syrup that Lizzie had given her, and then in a matter of moments she was out cold in Lizzie’s bed.

When Estelle woke up it was mid-morning. She went down the stairs to find Lizzie on the phone, Estelle passed her, walking into the kitchen and looking for something to fix the two of them to eat. Even if Lizzie had already had breakfast, she had been eating a lot more than usual. It was a wonder she hadn’t gained any weight. Lizzie had told Estelle that the baby was a girl to be named Ruby. This was something Polly had told her, though Estelle had no idea how Polly could tell when Lizzie wasn’t even showing. Estelle was halfway done with the scrambled eggs when Lizzie came in.

“Estelle, come sit down. I have to speak to you for a minute.”

Estelle’s heart stopped. Nothing good ever came after someone said ‘I have to speak to you.’ She told Lizzie to wait just a second while she plated the eggs. Lizzie began as Estelle sat down with their plates.

“I just spoke to Tommy. He says you can’t work for me anymore.”

“What?!” 

“Let me finish. He says you can’t work for me anymore because you’re apparently officially Finn’s girl. You’re lucky. The rest of us had to either marry in or get pregnant for that kind of privilege.” Lizzie bit her cheek.

“So what does this mean?”

“Well it can mean a few things. You can choose to keep living here or live with Polly. You still get money. Not as much as me, but enough that you should be able to function like a working girl your age. Or you can speed up the process by getting Finn to marry you, but you ought to wait a few years for that. Any idea which way you lean” 

“I like living with you, but I don’t understand why Mr. Shelby is doing this when I haven’t even met him.”

“Hun, three percent of all Shelby income goes to families vaguely associated with the family. One woman up until like last week had an income just because Arthur accidentally hurt her son in a boxing match. I’m sure whatever you get is probably coming from what would have gone to her”

“Why don’t they give to her anymore?”

“Because she didn’t want it. Now don’t you want it? To live here and I hire another girl to be our maid. You’ll get to go to Shelby events and spend time with me and the girls”

“Well yes, but I like helping you out around here.” Estelle said, taking Lizzie’s hand, “Do you mind if I stay?”

“Of course not.”  
Later that day they went to the offices where Polly was waiting with an envelope holding 8 quid. Polly explained that she’d get it every other week, joking about what Estelle must have done to vex Finn enough to convince Tommy to pay her for nothing. 

Over the following few weeks, a rhythm started to emerge. On Sundays, before seeing Finn, she would go to church with Polly, who was shocked to find that Estelle didn’t even know if she was christened. Mondays were days that Lizzie would go visit Tommy, so Estelle had the house to herself, so this was the day of the week she would wash her hair, shave, and occasionally pick up some of the needlework her grandmother had taught her. Tuesdays were the days she and Lizzie would go do grocery shopping and errands and every other week, babysitting Karl for his governess’s day off, often with Linda and Billy in tow. Estelle had noticed a bit of tension between Lizzie and Linda. Religion seemed to be what threw in the wrench to their relationship, so the topic was avoided. Wednesday morning was laundry, even though Lizzie insisted that they’d soon get a machine that washed the clothes. And so on and so forth through the rest of the week. She and Finn got comfortable enough to be happy at the most mundane things, as long as the other person was in the room. On Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, Finn would come over with something for them to do together, be it Estelle’s first trip to the pictures, or horseback riding, or stargazing: Wednesday evenings were specifically reserved for reading lessons for Finn. 

These were some of Estelle’s favorite days. It mean she and Finn sat very close together, close enough that they were all but skin to skin. She would watch his face as he would read, studying every detail. She got to see each freckle, every little bit of scruff that might halfway appear before he could shave it, the way he would lick his lips after she started making him wear beeswax on them to keep them from chapping and splitting, always down the middle.

Finn had told her that he trusted her to pick out what they should read together, and among several books Estelle had chosen a newly published book titled “The Great Gatsby.” Finn hadn’t seemed entirely enamored at the thought of a romance but Estelle noticed that he was entertained at how the book was from the perception of someone that vaguely befriended a man involved in organized crime. Estelle’s draw to the book was from the much more common interest in the love story and the way these men did business and social interactions.While they slowly read the words, she has become enamored with Jay and Daisy’s story. She loved the star-crossed nature of it and her heart ached for Daisy, who had married the wrong man before her true love could come home, but she didn't understand the full gravity of the story the way that the reader was supposed to. These children weren't old enough to remember the full impact of the war on men and how it pulled at families. The book had been written for a slightly older audience that understood the gravity of Daisy’s betrayal in that she had taken the heart of a man that has been twisted by war, whose only solace was coming home to marry this perfect woman, and torn the twisted heart. The older audience knew this was a very realistic situation that happened countless times to people that weren't exceptionally wealthy. Estelle had no window into that though; she didn't really know many men before or after the war. The only 2 she could remember was her grandfather who died when she was four, and the man Nana Mary would pay to run their errands. So in Estelle's eyes, Daisy was on the same pedestal that Jay had put her on. She knew Finn had grown up in a world akin to that of Gatsby’s party life and crime, so she took special note of how he reacted to each unfolding event. She also noticed that he, in turn watched hers. She saw that some points would make him smile as if he had a secret, and others would make him concerned. And they were only four chapters in as well. 

She also read other things When Finn wasn’t around. Estelle felt like she had fallen into a whole new world with these books. All Nana Mary had kept in the house had been the bible. The bible wasn't too hard to read: Estelle found some of the stories Very interesting. One story out of it that had been read to her frequently was the story of Esther. She had LOVED the idea of a beautiful woman being able to save the day. But the literary world held so much more. One of her favorites was an eye opener called “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. It let Estelle see into lives of people she couldn’t imagine. She hadn’t grown up a factory worker, but she knew that it was a very common job and that the Shelby’s owned and ran several. The book had put her off meat for a week and given her leanings towards communist views until she discussed it with Lizzie and got talked down from it. Estelle wouldn’t have been able to do much damage as a communist. But the collective idea is that it would have been an incredible pain in the ass to Lizzie and Finn to have to hear her constantly going on about it while she was directly benefiting from it. The good intent still lingered though. 

In time though, Finn told Estelle he was going to pick her up one morning to go to the offices to meet Tommy since he was finally back and had started a new passion project. The man was going to start up efforts to join parliament. Under the labour party. This was like a foreign language to Estelle as having only been taught basic things at home, government classes were never a priority, or really ever mentioned. But Finn seemed a little on edge about her meeting the men in the family. There hadn’t really been any major event for the family to get together so there had been no real opportunity. Estelle did know that Tommy wasn’t a very admirable person based on the fact that despite the fact that Estelle lived in the same house as the mother of his child, he never once went to visit Lizzie. And Lizzie had given many long, long monologues about this to Estelle in which many emotions had been conveyed and several in-depth stories that wouldn’t be appropriate to repeat. Of course Estelle had had time to think of this and absolutely could see a grey area where her life would have been very different had her mystery father paid for her mother to raise her in a nice house for nothing in return and inclusion into his family. 

So the next morning she got dressed in her Sunday clothes and went to the offices with Finn, gripping his hand tightly as he led her up to Tommy’s office. The interaction was short with Tommy, and very confusing. She had expected him to interrogate her mercilessly interrogate her about her family history and all those other things families ask about. The conversation was vague at best. Finn walked her in. 

“Tommy, this is Estelle Lewis.“ Finn said, putting on his usual formality.

“It’s nice to meet you sir,” she continued where Finn left off. Tommy hadn’t even stood up. But he did gesture for her to sit, which she did. Finn stood behind her with a hand on each of her shoulders. After that, Tommy pulled a decanter from his desk with a short glass, pouring gin into it.

“Ah Tommy not this shit again,” Finn started.

“Shut up Finn,” Tommy said, turning his face to address Estelle, “this is my gin. Drink it”

“Wh- Why?” Estelle asked, just before downing the drink. She grimaced a little.

“What do you think of it?” Tommy asked, ignoring her question while Finn protested slightly.

“I don’t really care for the taste of alcohol but maybe if you mixed it with something?”

Tommy scoffed with a slight smile. “Keep her Finn: she’s perfect for you.”

Estelle beamed, looking up at Finn, who was staring Tommy dead in the eye. Tommy smiled at her with closed lips before he spoke again. 

“Estelle, do you mind if I speak to Finn alone for a moment? I promise he’ll join you shortly,” Tommy said, signalling for her to leave. Estelle thought nothing of it but pressed her ear against the door to hear them. It sounded like another language but the last comment was clear as day when Tommy said with a laugh, “They look just alike.”

She managed to stand back up straight in time for Finn to open the door. Slipping her hand around his arm to walk, she finally asked. “Finn, what was Tommy talking about?”

“When?” 

“When you were alone. I heard another language and ‘they look just alike’”

“Oh. Tommy thinks you look like one of Arthur’s old girlfriends. Would you like to go stay with the girls? After you can come with me and meet a few of my other friends at boxing practice.


	9. Chapter 9

Finn hated lying to Estelle, but he knew Tommy was right to tell him Estelle shouldn't know her father. But hearing Tommy speak his opinion of Estelle was a little disturbing. 

“How could you not tell she was his on sight, Finn?” to many had said after Estelle left the room, “the only way she could look more like Aberama is if she was a boy”

To which Finn had replied, “Please don't make me think about that.” 

“You know, Finn, when I told Arthur, he said he hoped she didn't look like Aberama so you didn't have to think of him in the sack” Tommy said, grin on his face.

“I'm leaving”

But when Estelle had asked what Tommy had said, the lie came naturally. Every once in a while the members of his family would mention it to him. Of course it was namely Polly and Arthur. Ada didn't know, and no one else would really care outside of a level of gossip. Arthur still hasn't even met Estelle and he was all jokes about it. It made Finn feel guilty because now Estelle had 4 people in her life that knew vital information about her while she was clueless. But Tommy’s logic in why Estelle couldn't know was airtight. 

After he left Estelle with Ada going on about some girl stuff, Finn reflected on the conversation he had with Tommy on the night he got the picture of Aberama with Estelle’s mother. 

“You've got to be fucking kidding with me? Aberama Gold? You've gotten yourself involved with the daughter of a literal assassin Finn.”

“Well she got herself involved with the literal Peaky Blinders”

“Fair enough, Finn.” Tommy said, “well what do you want me to tell you?”

“Tommy how do I tell her her father is a gypsy felon?”

“You're a gypsy felon.”

“Fair enough, but really”

“You don't Finn. You cannot let her have that information and keep her. Because if Told finds out, he's gonna take her fucking travelling with his brood. And she'll go willingly because based on what I've heard, she is naiive enough to willingly fucking go with him simply because it's her father. And if you fuck her before Gold takes her, he'll kill you for making her damaged goods so he can't use her for marriage bait.” Tommy said as he lit a cigarette.

“But Tommy,” Finn started.

“Finn do you want to keep her or not”

“Of course I do. I'm crazy about her.”

“Then you keep your fucking mouth shut and cherish her.” Tommy said, looking to the side at the picture of Grace he kept in this room. “God knows we all wish for more time with the woman we love”

“And what would happen if Gold finds out we've kept his daughter as a maid?” Finn knew the answer. But he hated that the girl he had fallen for worked in such a low position. For a former prostitute. Lizzie hadn't been one for years but there would always be rumors. 

“You have a point, Finn. And I have no reason to argue, knowing what you want and the means to do it. She'll be one of us until she decides on her own to leave. Then we'll deal with that accordingly.”

This has been Finn’s cue to leave. And so he had, resolute to keep the girl that he knew wasn't meant for travelling life. Especially with a Gold. Estelle’s secret would be her key to living happily. 

Finn watched Estelle socialize for a moment in the door, he could hear her smile as she talked to Polly, who was reading her palm. Finn felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Arthur with a cheeky grin on his face. 

“Is that your Golden girl there?” Arthur asked quietly, “well introduce her”

“Darling,” Finn called. And she answered, taking his hand as she approached him. 

“Yes?”

“This is my brother Arthur,” Finn started as Arthur greeted Estelle and struck up a conversation with her. It frustrated Finn that Arthur never let him get a word out but at least he greeted Estelle warmly and already like a sister. He hasn't even done that with Grace back when Tommy announced she was pregnant as means of reintroducing her to the family. It concerned Finn when Arthur kept referring to her as Finn’s ‘Golden girl’ after maybe the third time, Polly gave Arthur a look that made him stop as she interjected into the conversation. 

“Estelle says you’re taking her to watch you box.” she declared, “why don’t you get on with that?”

Finn took this as an opportunity to slip Estelle out and off to meet King Maine and Isaiah. He felt strange having to warn Estelle that Isaiah was colored. But she seemed unphased by the idea. And thankfully Isaiah was actually a perfect gentleman, until they got into the ring of course. Arthur’s lack of subtlety was enough to fuel Finn in the ring. For once King wasn’t talking so much shit to Finn about needing to hit harder and even Isaiah was tapping out more than usual. But in between sets, Finn turned to Estelle and saw something he absolutely hadn’t accounted for. 

Bonnie Gold was leaned down with his elbow on the floor of the ring, to make himself level with Estelle, who was grinning and laughing at whatever he was saying. “Jesus Fucking Christ,” Finn thought, “I’m watching this man flirt with his sister.” It was like watching a trainwreck, in that sense, but for Finn it was also like getting hit with the train. He knew that he couldn’t tell them that they were siblings and that Bonnie hitting on her was absolutely vile, but he couldn’t just watch, either. To intervene now would cause a scene. The distress he was in, threw him completely off his game for the next set, and while his hits were harder, they were more sporadic and wild, leaving him open to Isaiah’s punches. One caught him hard enough to knock him to the ground, stunning him for a moment. Bonnie called to him from the side:

“Come on mate, you can do better than that, shaming us gypsies,” he said with a laugh.

Finn looked up and saw Bonnie gaging Estelle’s reaction to his declaration to being romanichal. She didn’t seem phased by it, but Finn wasn’t allowed the opportunity to question it further when King demanded he ‘get up and fight like a fucking Shelby or go home.’ A new wind picked up under Finn, letting him fire into his friend until Isaiah was truly battered and had to get out of the ring. When he followed Isaiah, he was met with a less than friendly response. 

“What the fuck Finn?” Isaiah demanded of him, tending a bloody lip. King answered for Finn, saying that he was finally fighting like he ought to. But while Finn was apologizing to Isaiah he had to contend with Estelle and Bonnie coming round to speak with them. 

“Are you two alright?” she asked, touching Finn’s tender face where Isaiah had landed a punch earlier. 

Bonnie answered before Finn could. “Ah he’s alright, doll, the Shelby’s can take a few hits, can’t ya, Mr. Shelby?”

“Yeah but it’s the dishing them out that’s the problem,” Isaiah said. 

Finn knew it would be best to change the subject and leave, “the only dish I want to see is a dinner plate.” he joked, hoping to lighten the mood.

“Now there’s an idea to get behind,” said Isaiah, recovered. 

Finn thanked his lucky stars that he was slick enough to finesse himself out of situations like that as he and Estelle left the gym. As they went back to Lizzie’s, Estelle chattered to Finn about how they might try reading more that night. But Finn still had his jaw clenched in contemplation about how well Estelle had seemed to get on, and before he knew it, he interrupted her. 

“So what did you think of everyone you met today?” he asked, trying to stay away from the topic of Bonnie specifically.

“Tommy was more pleasant than expected,” Estelle began, “Arthur was just like you said he would be. And Mr. Maine was very loud. I like Isaiah but I think I would prefer him with a shirt on, and maybe without blood on his face. Why did you hit him so hard?” 

“It was an accident, just happens sometimes when boxing. Continue.” 

“Your friend, Bonnie was great. He explained what you guys were doing and after he said he was a gypsy, we talked about that, because once in a while gypsies would camp by my yard overnight.”

“And how did you feel learning that I’m a gypsy?” 

“I think it’s just fine. I remember I spoke to one gypsy lady that was with a bunch of kids about what being a gypsy was like, but Nana Mary told me to come inside because it was ‘too cold for me to stay out there.’ I’m pretty sure she just didn’t like me speaking to gypsies though. And i got in trouble because before they left the next day, I gave them what was left of our Christmas dinner since they were leaving and apparently going far.”

Finn’s thoughts stopped dead in their tracks. “What Christmas was this?”

“Last Christmas, why?”

“And she had no husband with her?”

“No, she said her husband died. Finn what is it?”

“Estelle, this is very important to me. Do you remember what her name was?”

“Finn, do you know her?” Estelle asked. Finn saw her frustration.

“It depends on if you can tell me her name”

“Something Lee. I think.” she responded. 

“Esme Lee,” Finn corrected quietly.  
“That’s it!” Estelle exclaimed, “How do you know her?”

“Darling, that’s my sister-in-law,” Fin explained, “Do you remember back when I told you about the vendetta and how my brother John died? Well you met his widow. She ran off with the kids right after he died. We have no idea where they went, but based on what you just said, we at least have a cardinal direction. I’ll have to tell Tommy.”

“That’s so neat!” Estelle said, “but I would love to see your friends again.”

“Anyway you were telling me about how much you liked Bonnie.”

“Well, yes. He was very friendly and I won’t lie to you Finn, I felt very out of place at the gym. It’s very violent watching a bunch of men hit each other.”

“Do you remember that boxing match where you got lost and ended up staying with Changretta?”

“Yes? Why?”

“Because Bonnie was the one fighting in the ring that night. He became welterweight champion just as you left.”

“Oh really”

“Yes. He’s actually quite vicious once you put him in a ring”

“Well he seemed nice,” Estelle said as they approached the house, “Anyway. Lets get some food in us so that we can try to get through chapter five tonight. If we don’t keep you practicing reading, you’ll forget some of what you learned. And I know you don’t want that.”

Finn dropped the subject. Bonnie couldn’t be an issue if Estelle was never around him. And she didn’t seem as interested in him as she was with The Great Gatsby. This proved especially evident to him as he read chapter five to her. They often read in the Chaise Lounge in the den, with her leaned back and her head against his shoulder while his arm wrapped around her to hold the book with both hands. He was finally starting to be able to read a little faster. Only tripping up maybe once every paragraph, and her patience with him touched him to the core. Any time he would get frustrated. She would kiss his cheek and he would relax again. By the end of the chapter, she had fallen asleep in that position. Finn saw the clock across the room read almost midnight, but he couldn’t bear to wake her. He’d never seen her asleep before. And it was endearing that she felt so relaxed around him. So Finn himself just propped up the nearby throw pillow behind his head and fell asleep holding his girl.


	10. Chapter 10

Estelle still wasn’t a fan of boxing. But she knew she had to be pleasant at least while meeting those important in Finn’s life. So while she stood and watched Finn beat the tar out of Isaiah, trying to stay entertained, she silently wished she was at home instead. Luckily, her boredom ceased when another boxer stood next to her and started talking to her.

“They’re not much of a show,” he said, “are they?”

“I’m not really one much for boxing,” Estelle admitted to him.

“Well you’re lucky I’m here then Miss Stranger,” he said.

“Estelle Lewis.”

“And I’m Bonnie Gold. Tell me: Are you a blinders girl?”

“I guess you could call me that,” Estelle said. 

“Well then I’m lucky to be a blinder,” Bonnie said with flicker in his eye. He and Estelle both turned when they heard a thud on the ground. Finn had fallen and Estelle grimaced at how it must have hurt, but after some goading from Bonnie, he was back on his feet and at it. 

“So how did a pretty little white girl get involved with dirty gypsies?” Bonnie asked Estelle. 

“You look pretty clean to me.” she replied with a smile. Bonnie laughed with a crooked smile before insisting to know. 

“About three months ago I started working as a bit of a maid for Elizabeth Stark, you know, Tommy’s girl.”

“You work for the pregnant prostitute?” 

“No now I just live with her, and don’t call her that,” Estelle defended her friend.

“You’re right. She’s done me no wrong. But I think these two might start fighting for real in a second. I don’t know what’s gotten into Finn.” Bonnie led Estelle to the other side of the ring to meet the two battered boys.

On the way home, she noticed Finn was colder and quieter than usual, but didn't need to ask why once he asked how she felt about the men she had met that day and he grew more bitter when Bonnie came up. He was jealous. She was able to distract him a bit when they learned that she had met a Shelby before Finn. And he lightened up after that for dinner and their reading. She felt so much better once she was able to lie back with him and take her shoes off in her house. But before she knew it, it was morning. Awoken by Lizzie feigning a cough and standing over her. 

It took a second for Estelle to realize she was still in fact on the couch in the living room with Finn, who had to catch her around the waist when she bolted upright and almost fell off the couch. Lizzie laughed at them. 

“We do have bedrooms, you know” she began, “you don't have to share a couch.” 

Estelle and Finn both tried to apologize at the same time, but Lizzie waved them off.

“I don't mind if you stay Finn, but next time, give me a warning if could.”

Estelle was mortified with embarrassment, even though she knew that she and Finn had done nothing really wrong. Finn must have felt similarly, because he noted the time and insisted he was late to meet Tommy and Arthur about some campaigning things. 

After Finn left, Lizzie and Estelle discussed their activities from the day before, and it led to a conversation the Estelle was absolutely not prepared for upon mention of Finn’s jealousy.

“Well tell me Estelle. Have you fucked him yet?” Lizzie casually asked. 

“I think Tommy is rubbing off on you, Liz”

“He's done more than rub off on me,” Lizzie bantered back, “But seriously. It's been long enough. Men need that kind of attention to make them feel secure and in return you get security from them.”

“Well it's not like I haven't thought about it but really I don't know how to, well, you know. Do it,” Estelle bashfully explained. 

“Well you've come to the right person. I can tell you all the trade secrets.”

And so began the full day of Lizzie giving Estelle a long series of sex tips. Estelle never thought she'd be taught how to do certain things but Lizzie insisted and so Estelle was taught how to do all those things that “proper” women wouldn't have known about. One thing in particular that really surprised Estelle was when Lizzie was explaining how to make oneself have an orgasm in the event that the man “isn't doing the job right.” 

“Lizzie this is probably one of the strangest experiences of my life, standing next to you in the bathroom as you explain what masturbation is and just a minute ago we literally shaved all the hair below my neck. Now you're telling me that while a guy will have an orgasm every time he has sex, chances are that I won't? How is that fair?”

“Oh it's not fair at all. That's why you're learning this so you can make sure you do. Have you ever seen those women that look at me like trash when we go out? It's because they weren't taught all this and they don't get to view sex as an act of pleasure. Most men don't know how to really pleasure a girl. They think All they have to do is move their dicks around in you. Tommy hasn't made me cum once in all these years, each time I get to with him, it's by my own hand, his dick is just an accessory by that point.” Lizzie monologued. 

“That's disgusting. Why do you sleep with him again?”

“Because I love him, and it keeps home from fucking too many other people. Now you Have to understand, the Shelby’s consider loyalty incredibly important. And if you fuck Finn that will be a major act of loyalty, since you're a virgin.”

“Are you sure this is the way to go? You know I didn't even have my first kiss until I got here.”

“Well that should tell you how much more it will mean,” Lizzie sympathized, “besides, if you don't, the blinders have a habit of making sure the other man doesn't have a chance”

“Lizzie are you telling me they'll hurt Bonnie over being friendly?” Estelle asked, watching Lizzie severely. She couldn't imagine Finn hurting anyone for something so trivial. Lizzie’s silence spoke volumes. 

Finally Lizzie spoke, “I think you've learnt enough. If you have any questions later, just ask.” and with that, she promptly left the room. 

Estelle looked in the bathroom mirror. And then the straight razor on the counter. An impulse struck her in this moment of stress. She picked up and unfolded the razor as she looked in the mirror. Her hand fondled the long tied off braid that she had done up that morning and that reached to her waist. And from the back of her neck she sawed off the many inches of thick hair. And continued trimming what was left until all her hair was up to her ears. She loved the freedom it seemed to give her and her head felt so much lighter. The stick straight hair accented her cheekbones as the fringe brushed it. She held the massive braid in her hand and washed the rest of her tresses down the sink drain. Estelle couldn't help but grin as she slipped back to her room and changed clothes to keep the short cut hairs from poking at her and tied a small sash around her hair in a bow at the back. It was a short term distraction but it was something she had needed, knowing that the next night she spent with Finn, the virtue Nana Mary had scorched into Estelle’s brain as so important, would be gone. 

The next day she got a cab to surprise Finn at work, making sure to time it so she would get there around the time he would be finishing up. She appreciated the fact that now her clothes were made of silk instead of the wool knits she had worn year round while living with Nana Mary, and she had never known how pleasant the summer could be when she didn’t have to deal with the gross sweat making her hair cling to her face and neck. When she arrived at the offices, she found Finn in Tommy’s office with Polly, Arthur, and of course Tommy, all of whom were a sight to Estelle, in light Egyptian cottons. The windows and curtain wide open and filled with electric fans. A commodity Estelle had never heard of before living with Lizzie. She took in the sight. Polly was sat in an armchair, smoking next to a fan and window. The boys were standing together around a paper, discussing campaign plans for Tommy. All three were still wearing those silly hats despite the heat. Arthur didn’t even have a shirt on but kept his suspenders. As Estelle approached she could study more details. Like how Tommy’s sleeves were rolled up and he had a tattoo that could be seen through the thin fabric of his shirt. Finn welcomed Estelle, she knew he was frustrated at how his brothers would have to explain things since they could read so much faster. 

“Darling!” he said, “your hair! It’s all gone!” 

“Well hello to you too. Do you like it?” Estelle asked. 

Finn kissed her on the cheek, “I love it! What brings you here?”

Before she could answer, the other Shelby’s joined in greeting, even Tommy had a smile on. 

“Tommy I know you want to nail down these little details but how about being a goddamn humanitarian for once and letting out of this fucking oven to cool off. I’m sure Linda’s damn dear died of heat stroke by now.” 

“Alright Arthur,” Tommy relented, “you go find something to cool off with. See you tomorrow.”

“Thank fucking Jesus.” Polly said, exhaling smoke as she spoke. Polly hardly said goodbye but invited everyone to join her outside. She was soon followed by the rest of the dismissed group.

Once they were outside, Finn kissed Estelle again, this time on the lips. She beamed up at him. “Well dear. What do you want to do for the rest of this fine day?” She watched an idea light on his face in the form of a smirk. 

“You haven’t been to my apartment yet have you?

“No”

“Well I know a way for us to get cooled off but we’ll have to run an errand first”

Before she knew it, she and Finn were chipping at a large block of ice in his bathtub while a fan spurred on their efforts to shrink the melting block. Once they had gotten it sufficiently broken down and the tub filled up, Estelle realized the next step was a bit tricky. But she took a deep breath and unbuttoned her dress, letting it fall to the ground and leaving only her slip and stockings. Finn stared at her with wide eyes before stripping down to his own underdrawers. 

“You look beautiful, Darling” he said stepping into the icy bathwater.

She couldn’t help the blush that had grown in her cheeks. She flinched at the cool water but after she and Finn had settled into it, there was a strange comfort to being so naked with him, who she knew would never judge her, and she could never judge him. After a while, their fingers pruned and they knew it was time to step out.

When they dried off Estelle made her move, kissing him and setting him back on his bed and letting her fingers start toward his cock but as soon as she got her hand on it he grabbed her wrist.

“Darling, what are you doing?” he asked with slight concern. 

“Im… trying to um, make love to you…..”

“I caught that. But this is very sudden. What makes you want this now?” he sat back up and set her on the bed beside him, looking her in the eye. 

“Lizzie said I had to, to keep you happy.” Estelle said with her heart aching. 

Finn took her face in his hands. “Listen to me. You don't ‘have to’ anything with me. I don't want you to fuck me if it's not 100% what you want. Lizzie, Polly, Ada, they don't think of it as something serious. I never told you this but not too long before I met you they pawned off my own virginity as a game. It was something they did because they were bored. Can you imagine caring so little about someone's feelings that you decide you have to have a permanent stake in their sex? So if you have a shadow of a doubt about this, you don't even have to come within three fucking feet of me”

Estelle watched his eyes for a moment before kissing him passionately. How could she have ever doubted him. He had never once done anything but support her and try to make her happy. 

“I love you,” she said, “and I want you. Physically”

“I love you too, “he said rolling over on top of her. “I get to love the most wonderful girl in the world.” 

Estelle let Finn make love to her then. Never had she felt so close to anyone. It was unlike any feeling she had ever had. Lizzie hadn’t prepared her for this feeling. Lizzie had led Estelle to believe Finn would be disappointing, but he was the most wonderful thing in the world to her.


	11. Chapter 11

Finn spent that week happier than ever. Polly could tell what happened, even before Lizzie had told her but he didn’t care. The trouble didn’t start until about 2 weeks later. 

Estelle had spent the night over a few more times, but on this day he woke up alone with the day off and after getting a lecture from Isaiah, promised to come back to the gym he had been neglecting.

When he got to the gym, it was just a whole lot of regret waiting. Before he could even get into the ring he ran into that fucking Bonnie Gold. 

“So when you gonna let your best friend have a turn with that girl? I’ve been visiting her at night every now and then but she tells me that while I’m so very much more appealing, you won’t let her leave.” he goaded Finn on, knowing that while he was typically even tempered, eventually he’d lose it.

Finn didn’t snap, but his next comment, trying to diffuse the situation with humor and humiliation, pissed off Bonnie. 

“It’s not my fault you can't get a girl to sleep with you”

“How about we make it interesting. Finn Shelby, I get I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back. If I win, I get a go round with your girl.”

“What do I get when I win,” Finn asked, keeping a straight face, but internally dreading the inevitable.   
“Well, you get the bragging rights of beating the welterweight champion holder. And I’ll fuck off and not continue the path to seducing your girl.”

“Bonnie, you know if you weren't a blinder, I'd have the right to take your eyes just over what you've said about Estelle. You do realize that right.”

Bonnie stepped up to Finn face to face. “Do it then, or face me like a man.”

Finn was thoroughly disgusted. He had seen a lot of things that were bad, traumatizing even. But while he knew Bonnie didn't know, the thought of how much effort Bonnie was putting in for a chance to fuck his sister was downright disturbing. Finn also knew there was no way to avoid this fight. And while it wouldn't be as bad as usual, Bonnie was still gonna be able to seriously injure Finn in a match with one hand. So he took the shot and said the phrase that would eventually lead to a hospital visit: “you are no man.”

About ten minutes later, Finn found himself in the ring. Ready to bleed. He listened to both encouragements and shit talk as he watched Isaiah tie Bonnie’s right hand behind his back. 

The fight easily was one of Finn’s most painful and humiliating experiences. He didn’t land a single hit. But himself was instead hit numerous times. Bonnie taunting him the whole way through. Finn knew he was being teased like a cat plays with a mouse and his vision was clouded red. After a few more hits, it finally happened a soft crack resounded in his ears and he was out cold. 

When he woke up he was in a hospital. King Maine was sat in the chair next to him, shutting a newspaper he had apparently been reading.

“About time you woke up,” he said, “Don’t try to talk. Your jaw is cracked. Wasted an hour and a half of my time because you’re stupid enough to get in a ring with that man. You’re lucky that he pitied you enough to offer to pay the hospital bill.”

“Where is he?” Finn asked, trying to move his jaw as little as possible. He felt no pain in it. So he opened his mouth a little more to repeat himself.

“He said he was off to take his winnings. Now here, take another swig of the morphine” King said as he handed off a 12 oz bottle. Finn took it, sitting upright and reaching for his clothes, which sat on a nearby table. King said Isaiah was the one that thought to grab them but coloreds weren’t allowed in this part of the hospital. 

“That’s right, boy,” King said, “get on with life and be a man about it.”

Finn got changed from his gym clothes quickly and checked himself out of the hospital. He found Isaiah at the entrance, but before Isaiah could express his concern, Finn told him to get up and come with him to Lizzie’s house.

When he got there, he and Isaiah found the front door unlocked and heard commotion in the kitchen. They listened as they approached.

“Bonnie for the last time, I’m not having sex with you!” they heard Estelle shout. And when they got in there, Bonnie was leered over Estelle, who held a large knife to his ribs. Finn pointed his gun at Bonnie.

“Get away from her Bonnie,” he said, “Come here Estelle.”

“After you bet me like some fucking whore?” she hissed back. Finn had never heard such harsh words from her, and they stung, but she didn’t know that he had no choice.

Bonnie himself hadn’t moved aside from putting his hands up. “A deal is a deal, Shelby. Now I can see why she might be upset but I’m sure diner and a trip to the pictures will win her over like it did for you. I don’t know why this is causing such a stir, you blinder boys pick up and drop them constantly, don’t ya Isaiah?”

“For fucks sake, Bonnie. You can’t Fuck this one!” Finn groaned in disgust. 

“And why not, Shelby?” Bonnie demanded.

“Because that’s you’re fucking sister,” Finn said, dropping the arm that held the gun. He noticed that where he had lowered his, Isaiah had raised it to replace cover. He watched Bonnie step back from Estelle.

“She’s my fucking what, mate?” Bonnie asked, mocking Finn a little, “I think I hit you a little too hard. Do you need to go back to the hospital.” Isaiah also gave him a look of skepticism

“Look, I know it sounds crazy but it’s true” Finn explained, “I have proof.”

So after a phone call, in which Thomas gave Finn an earful, and a drive to Tommy’s, there they stood in Tommy’s office, calmly, no weapons pointed. Tommy pulled the photograph out of a locked drawer after making everyone sit down. Estelle hadn’t said a word. She just stared at Finn with a look that managed to convey both hope and anger. Tommy had made Isaiah explain the events of the day before sending him to got get whatever he might want to eat out of the kitchen. 

“Alright,” Tommy said, “who gets to examine the evidence first? Or shall I read the note attached to the photograph?” When the three teenagers in front of him started for the photo he raised his hand. “I guess I’ll start reading then, eh?”

Finn listened to Tommy read the words that had weighed on his conscience for the last several weeks: “This is Estelle’s father. Make sure she knows who we are, and that back then, I wasn’t in the situation I am now. She will never get to meet him, since he moved on, but let her have this photo when she is old enough. It is the only one of him and I together. Love, Janine.” Tommy set his glasses down on the desk before he continued to speak. “Now we know this was yours Estelle, because it was in that sack of papers from your house,” He said to Estelle, before turning to Bonnie, “And there is no doubt that the man in this picture is your father.” He finally addressed Finn, “and you ruined a golden fucking opportunity for us.” Tommy came around his desk and handed the photo to Estelle. “I believe you deserve to see who he is at least, but know your father is a Romani assassin. That’s the background your grandmother wanted you protected from.” 

Bonnie leaned over her shoulder, only needing a glance to recognize his father. Finn could only sit and watch in suspense to see Estelle’s every reaction. She managed to keep herself well composed the entire time. Bonnie sat for a moment and stared at the wall before asking.

“Estelle, when were you born?” Finn could hear the words said through Bonnie’s bared teeth.

“Some time in 1908. I never knew the exact date.” She replied, looking at her brother. Finn realized he had never asked. She was probably older than him by at least a few months. It didn’t really matter but it was one of those moments that he realized that not everyone got to have a birthday. 

“You’re only a year younger than me,” he said, “You could have been conceived while my mother was still carrying me.” Bonnie turned to the Shelby’s, “and you two fucks knew and still kept her from us. Who fucking does that?”   
“Bonnie, Estelle, can you two step outside for a moment with Isaiah while I speak to Finn.”

“Oh I’m leaving,” Bonnie said, “My father and I have to have a discussion.”

“Don’t take the girl”

“I’m not fucking taking the girl, but I am taking that photo,” Bonnie said. Finn watched Estelle place it in his hand before leaving the room with him, still silent.

“Alright, boy,” Tommy said to Finn, once the siblings had left the room, “Do you know what you’ve gotta do now if you want to keep her?”

“Apologize and beg forgiveness?” Finn suggested.

“More,” Tommy said, “You’ve got to marry her. She’s not fit to be on the road with the Golds and Aberama won’t let her stay otherwise.”

“Tommy, you’re insane. I don’t even have a ring for her,” Finn said, “I’m not John. you can’t decide this one for me.” In all fairness though. He had been considering getting her one. A little house too, so she wouldn’t have to stay in artillery square. Finn never would have guessed Tommy’s next move.

“If I don’t decide this, it’s going to decide itself against your favor. Now, I’m going to let you borrow this,” Tommy said, “But if you lose it for Charlie I will take its worth from you two’s flesh.” Tommy pulled open the locked drawer that had also contained the photograph and handed Finn a small box. “And this is only until you can buy her her own.”

Finn flicked open the box and eyed the wedding ring. The rock still impressed him. Bound by a platinum band, it was a 2 carat diamond. It had suited Grace, a rich girl with high expectations and used to certain standards. Finn knew it wasn’t quite right for Estelle though. 

“Jesus Tommy,” Finn knew how much this meant to Tommy. Tommy hadn’t buried the ring with Grace, so that had to mean he was planning to one day give young Charles the ring for his own wife. 

Tommy ignored the remark. “Now you’ve got three days at most before Aberama and Bonnie are back here for her,” he said, “so I suggest you get started with that begging and pleading you have planned. I have to call Polly and make sure she knows and can start making a couple plans. If you can convince her to marry you right now,through some divine intervention, Johnny Dogs is in the back yard.”

Finn took a deep breath. “Three days?”

Tommy nodded, “At most. Lucky for us, this time the Bride’s side is the same as the Groom’s” 

Finn pulled out the bottle of morphine from his pocket and took a gulp rather than the usual swig before replying to Tommy.

“Alright. Let the bells start ringing.”


	12. Chapter 12

Estelle had nearly had a heart attack when she found out that Finn had been injured in a fight with Bonnie. Bonnie had shown up a few times in the middle of the night, occasionally when she wasn't even there, to leave gifts of flowers and suggest moonlit strolls. She and Lizzie had been drinking tea in the living room when Arthur showed up to get Estelle, but when Arthur got her to the hospital Isaiah explained that he hit his head on the corner pole after the last knockout punch, and it had concussed him. He had also apparently suffered a minor crack in his jaw. But when Estelle got to him in the hospital she wasn't quite prepared to see him in such a state. He was muttering in his sleep. Pale and sickly he was laid prone on the bed with headgear on. She hasn't seen an injury like it before. But after an hour she had grown more used to it and when evening fell, she declined Arthur's offer to take her home, saying she would pay her own way later that night. It had grown quiet shortly after that, Estelle stroked his hand, sitting next to him, studying him. He was still muttering, but his words were almost incoherent. Estelle could only make out bits and pieces.

“Estelle, photograph, Tommy’s house, Bonnie, her father, in the desk, I'm sorry” were all spoken over the course of several minutes. She had taken to writing them down. It was like he was having a dream. But the words were more than a little concerning. It had been weeks since any mention to the lost photograph of her father was made. But after a few moments, most of the pieces clicked together. Estelle realized the photograph was in the desk at Tommy’s house. She could have strangled Finn. What kind of sick betrayal. It twisted in her stomach to know the man she loves would keep something so vital to her identity from her.

But in the other hand this meant she still has a chance of finding out who her father was. Estelle stood up, taking one last glance at Finn before going home, working out a plan in her head.

When she got home she knew she would have to ask a favor of Lizzie. Lizzie greeted Estelle by asking how Finn was.

“He’s still unconscious for the moment but they think he will be okay since he is talking in his sleep. But Lizzie, I have to ask you a big favor” Estelle said, she continued to explain her theory while watching Lizzie’s own rage grow on her friend’s behalf.

“Those fucking peaky bastards,” she said, “alright Estelle. What do you need me to do?” 

“Put on something sexy. I need you to distract Tommy while I steal my parent’s photograph back.”

Estelle and Lizzie discussed why Finn and Tommy would keep her parentage a secret as Lizzie changed, praying that it wouldn’t be someone disturbing like another Shelby and rode in silence together to Arrow House. She watched Lizzie step inside and watched through the window as Tommy greeted her. When Lizzie gave the signal, pulling Tommy close by his lapels, Estelle walked around to the kitchen entrance. It was now late enough that the staff had gone to bed. She left her shoes by the door outside so that their tapping wouldn’t alert anyone to her presence but as soon as she rounded the corner she spotted a man eating a pear that he must have taken from the cellar.

He spoke to her cheerfully, “It’s nice to know Tommy pays you girls well enough here that you can come and go and wear nice things innit? I bet you were out meeting a beau, weren’t ya?”

“Yes,” Estelle replied, blushing and hoping he wouldn’t realize she wasn’t actually Tommy’s maid. “But it’s a secret, so don’t tell anyone.”

Johnny nodded and winked, “what’s your name, dear?”

“Stella.”

“Well don't get into too much trouble with that boy, or I'll set after him for ya”

He grinned, letting Estelle pass. She breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped through a few different rooms in the house. She almost laughed at the painting of Thomas hanging in the dining room. The man felt that self important to have himself painted in a period when it could be a photograph. But she continued until she found the dimly lit study of Tommy’s. “In the desk,” Finn had said. She walked around to the back of the desk and opened all but the two locked drawers. One was full of photo albums. Finne had told Estelle about Tommy’s wife, she had been strikingly beautiful. But she continued through the other drawers, some containing deeds and others basic office supplies. Pushing the drawers back in, she sat in the chair and thought for a moment about where the key might be, but before she could think too long, she heard the door open, and ducked beneath the desk. She heard the footsteps in the room. Tommy poured a drink in the background. 

“You can come out from under there.”

Estelle groaned in defeat as she got out and stood up.

“Oh fuck it’s you,” Tommy said, surprised, “what are you doing under my desk, I thought you were Charlie out of bed. Why are you in my house?”

“I know you have the picture of my father in this drawer,” Estelle said. 

Tommy sighed and poured another drink, holding it out for Estelle to take, “You and I need to have a discussion before I give you the photo. I can’t control your choices now that you know, but I can try to persuade you. Go sit down on the couch in the next room over while I get you the photograph.”

“And why should I trust you?” Estelle asked, skeptically, “and where is Lizzie?”

“I sent her home. And I couldn’t actively hurt you when I know how much my brother cares about you.”

“That’s reassuring,” Estelle snarked as she stepped into the other room, waiting for Tommy. He sat down next to her and handed her the photograph. 

“Do you need me to read it, or did Finn actually find someone literate?” Tommy asked. 

Estelle read the note on the back, there wasn’t even a name for her father on it, tears welled up slightly in her eyes. “But why did you keep it from me?”

“Because Finn and I know this man. The whole Shelby clan does. And he isn’t a good man. Finn was concerned that if he found out you were his, he would take you away.” Tommy explained.

“How do you know him?” Estelle asked, “What makes him a bad man?”

“I’m sure Finn has told you about the ordeal we had with the Italians a few months ago, but we tried to be professional and hired an assassin to get rid of the Italian problem. Your father was that assassin.”

Estelle was quiet for a second, “What is my father’s name?”

“Aberama Gold”

“Like Bonnie Gold?” Estelle said, leaning away from Tommy a bit, concerned.

“Yes. That would be your brother.”

“You’re telling me that that boy is my brother? We look nothing alike.”

“I think he took after his mother. You have sisters too. Three of them. Bonnie actually is actually leaving tonight to go be with his family since Esmerelda is getting married.”

“Tommy?”

“Yes child?”

“Do you know where Bonnie is staying right now?” 

“If you go home and pack, I’ll have someone tell Bonnie to come get you.” 

“Thank you”

“Estelle?”

“My brother means the world to me. I almost lost him to a grenade once, but he is going to wake up to you gone. So I need you to promise that I’ll be able to honestly tell him you’ll come back, or he’ll set off after you.”

“I will.”

Tommy walked Estelle out to Johnny Dogs’ tent, waking him. 

“Johnny, I need you to give Estelle a ride to Lizzie’s. Then you need to go tell Bonnie Gold that Estelle here wants him to come see her. He’s a teenager, it's 9:30 at night, he won't say no.” 

Johnny groaned slightly “Tommy I can't take her there and get him in time on horseback.”

“That's not an issue, Johnny, you'll be driving,” Tommy tossed the keys to his Bentley at Johnny.

“You know I don't like cars Tommy” 

“And why not” 

“You can't feed a car carrots and you can't make it trust you”

“Get the fuck up” 

Johnny stood up and didn't even speak to Tommy before lacing Estelle's arm with his and walking her to the car. He chattered the whole way to Lizzie's about nothing. He bid her goodnight before taking off to catch Bonnie. 

“Bonnie,” Estelle thought, “my brother. I have a brother. And sisters.” 

When she got inside, she told Lizzie what had happened. Lizzie herself was upset, smoking and drinking.

“I'm sorry Estelle. I would have kept him busy longer, but he couldn't get hard. I'm not sexy enough for him 4 months pregnant”

Estelle kissed Lizzie's forehead. “I've got to go away for a few days, will you help me pack?”

Lizzie shook her head no, prompting Estelle to slip back into her room. She took the bag that once held Nana Mary’s papers And filled it with a few days worth of clothes, her makeup, and some money she had saved up. She heard the familiar knock on her front door. This time, she answered. Bonnie stood there with a smirk on his face. 

“Arite, love,” Bonnie said, “I don't have too much time for this, I've got to leave soon tonight”

“I know, take me with you. I have a bag packed”

“You want to leave the Shelby boy and come travelling with me eh?”

“Yes, but not for the reason you think: I'll explain on the way” Estelle said, not wanting to waste time explaining here. 

“He doesn't hit you, does he?” Bonnie asked, “because I'll fuck him up worse, I wasn't even trying this morning.”

“No, but can I please come with you?” 

“Yeah I have the wagon out front. I'll even let you sleep in the bed while I drive.”

“Thank you.”

He carried her bag to the wagon and set it on the ground before picking Estelle up by her hips and setting her up in the wagon before handing her her bag and climbing up himself. About an hour into their journey, Bonnie finally spoke:

“So explain to me why you decided to accompany a young gypsy boy unescorted on a multi day trip.”

Estelle tried to explain a few different ways the events of the day, finally she gave up and had to be as blunt as possible, she pulled the photograph from her breast, where she had put it earlier, not having pockets and handed it to Bonnie.

“Who's that with my father?” he asked, entirely confused.

“Read the back.”

“Can't. Dint need to learn how to read on the road.”

“That's my mother” Estelle said. 

“Oh” Bonnie said.

“And my father” 

“Fucking no it's not.”

“Bonnie it's what the note says.”

He was silent for about 2 minutes before speaking again. “I'm sorry I hit on you.”

“Forgiven. But you and I need to go speak to our father about this.”

“Yeah but we can't just do it upon arrival Estelle.” Bonnie said.

“Why not?” 

“Because as mad as I am, I'm not going to let my father's nonsense ruin my sister’s wedding. So I hope you brought a proper dress”

“Jesus Christ, you're right,” Estelle said, “But how do we justify you bringing me then.” 

“Easy enough. You're my date to my other sister's wedding. Fuck. Four sisters. Not fair that I'm the only boy,” he chuckled. 

“Bonnie will you do me a favor?” Estelle asked, placing her hand on her brother's, “Tell me about each of our family members and what I should expect? Please.”

“Alright I'll start with Esmeralda since she's the lady of the hour…”


	13. Chapter 13

Finn’s dreams continued down the path where they had started. In his head there was three days to get Estelle to marry him. So he was markedly upset when he left Tommy’s office and knew he had to convince Estelle to marry him in a 3 day period of time. So day one of the plot began. Finn began it by filling Lizzie’s house with flowers. Every florist in town ran out of flowers delivering them to be set in each surface of Estelle's house in the early morning before she woke up. He was stood in the living room in a full suit ready to bend on one knee and beg forgiveness.

“Darling, would you let me change the only thing I don’t like about you?” he had said. Her reply wasn’t correct.

“Get out of my house Finn.”

“You were supposed to say ‘What am I supposed to change?’”

She sighed, “What am I supposed to change?”

“Your last name”

“I don’t need a ring for that. You’ve spent so much time trying to make sure it didn’t change. So now it’s Gold.”

The following day in in his deadline was much more urgent. Polly had secured Estelle a wedding dress. But she said he couldn’t see it. Jeremiah Jesus and Johnny dogs were both waiting for Finn to bring Estelle to the alter. Three separate attempts were made that day based on the suggestions of each of the Shelby brothers. 

The final attempt was the most desperate, and the most stupid. John had suggested slipping the ring on Estelle’s finger in the middle of the night, sleeping next to her naked, and telling her that the two of them had gotten married. But at this point Finn had to try anything. 

“Well if we’re married, why don’t I remember?” she had asked.

“You don’t remember your own wedding?” Arthur teased, “for shame; then again I don’t remember mine either!”

And so Estelle insisted they repeat the wedding because “if she was going to be married, even into such a miserable family, she was going to remember it”  
The next thing that Finn knew he was standing at a Church altar with Estelle, who wore a satin dress cut off just below the knees.

But as the ‘I do’ passed from his lips, the church door opened. Finn turned to see Bonnie and Aberama standing with their guns pointed at him, and a shot hit Finn right in the head.

That was when Finn woke up. A nurse was adjusting his head on the pillow. She got excited when he woke up and rushed to get him some water and the doctor. After several minutes of the doctor explaining what was going on with him medically and giving him a dose of the morphine, Arthur arrived to check him out, he had gotten a call from the doctor saying that he could come pick Finn up, all they had to pay for was the morphine.

“Arthur where is Estelle?” Finn gritted through his teeth, trying not to upset the broken jaw, “how long was I asleep?”

“Finn, It’s only been one night. I called tommy to let him know you were awake, right after I was told you were awake and he said to bring you to Arrow house. Estelle is probably at home, she stayed at the hospital with you after I left last night”

Finn nodded in acceptance, still uneasy from his dream. The morphine was kicking in and he could speak with a little more ease, “And Bonnie?”

“Left last night to go to a wedding.”

Finn was satiated by these answers, and ready to receive the lecture from Tommy about how stupid it was to get in a ring with Bonnie. When he got to the house though, he was surprised to find Polly also there waiting for him.

Pour him a drink, Pol” Tommy said as Finn sat down. “Now Finn, why did you get in a ring with Bonnie Gold?”

“Because he said if I won, he would quit trying to seduce Estelle.”

Arthur spat out his drink bursting into laughter. “You mean,” he cackled, hardly able to breathe, “That Bonnie Gold has been trying to fuck his own sister?” His face was red as a tomato and he was doubled over. Holding up a finger he left the room.

“Jesus Christ Finn, why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Polly asked.

“You know why.”

“Listen to me Finn, and finish that drink before I say this,” Tommy said, “Estelle knows.”

Finn’s rage returned, like the night he blinded the Italian, unrelenting distress and anger bubbling up out of him. He gripped the arm of the chair he was in so hard that his knuckles turned white. “Who told her?” He demanded. “Where is she?”

“Finn, have another drink,” Tommy said, pouring Finn his third in the past six minutes. He waited until Finn downed the gin before continuing, Finn’s vision was starting to cloud slightly on the edges. 

“You were the one to tell her Finn. she snuck into my house in the middle of the night and made it all the way into this room here to get that photograph.”

“I swear to god Tommy if you hurt her-”

“No Finn, she and I sat down and had a drink instead and talked it out like adults.”

Arthur reentered the room and threw a small dry rag on the spot where he had spit his drink.

“Where is she then Tommy?” Finn asked almost desperately now. He hated the way that Tommy always had to give news in the most dramatic way possible.

“She left last night with Bonnie. She’s gone Finn.”

Finn went to tackle Tommy over his desk, but was stopped by Arthur.

“Tommy how could you let him take her?!” he agonized. 

“She asked to go Finn. She said she’d be back. Now go on and get yourself sorted.”

As Finn and Arthur left the room he saw Polly give Tommy the look that meant she was going to verbally decimate him as soon as they were alone.

Finn maintained himself until he was alone in the car with Arthur, they hadn’t gotten more than a mile from Tommy’s house when he burst into tears. Arthur pulled the car over and hugged his brother. 

“Finn, she’ll come back,” he said. “If she doesn’t, then she doesn’t deserve you.”

“I’ll kill Bonnie if anything happens to her.”

“Do you remember the day that Tommy gambled our uncle’s yard to fuck Gold’s daughter?” Arthur asked.

Finn looked up at him. “Yes?”

“Did Gold take the bet?”

“No”

“That’s right Finn, he didn’t, and do you remember how he wanted his son to be a boxer like he wanted?”

“Yes, Arthur.”

“The man cares about his children. He might be a bad man, but it can’t be said that he doesn’t love his children. Now what you should be hoping for instead of her coming back is that the family she has been looking for her whole life loves and accepts her despite not growing up in the culture and despite being the bastard child of a man that impregnated a woman while his wife still lived.”

Finn was Silenced by Arthur’s words. He was absolutely right. His heart still ached for her, but this was an opportunity he had tried to rob her of, and now that she had it, the best thing he could do was support her and hope for her forgiveness. He took another swig of the morphine that was in his pocket. 

“Thank you, Arthur.”

Without his parents growing up, Arthur had filled in the role of father in Finn’s eyes. He himself had been disappointed when he finally met Arthur Sr. back after his 11th birthday. Finn remembered thinking that Arthur was much more of a man and a father than his real father had ever been. Finn also remembered that he was the reason his father left the family. Three days after his birth, their mother had died of a birthing complication, a blood clot in the leg, and their father had run away from his grief. It was a topic their family struggled with.

Arthur had started the car back home to Artillery Square and as Finn walked the stairs up to his apartment, he continued his thoughts on his Family’s coping habits. The first incident Finn could remember of death in the Family was when John lost Martha. Finn remembered that John hadn’t even been home for the funeral, but had initially gone on a spree of fucking women of the night, seeking that warmth he had lost, but never leaving the family. From France to Lizzie, he sought refuge from the pain. And in Lizzie he had thought he had it. Now Lizzie was about to give birth to Tommy’s child instead. 

The next loss in the family he remembered was when Ada lost Freddie. She hadn’t shown any emotion at the funeral, but she had also tried to leave the family. But the family was still watching over her as she had taken Karl and tried to run from the Machiavellian family to which she belonged. 

Grace’s death showed Tommy’s response to unutterable grief. Unlike with Martha and Freddie, it had been Tommy who was meant to die that night. After the funeral Finn remembered that Tommy had run away with Johnny Dogs for three days in search of the excuse that would relieve at least the guilt of causing his wife’s death. 

And lastly he remembered John, the pain was still fresh even to Finn. Esme had run away from the family, taking all of John, Katie, Theresa, Isaac, Lee, and George with her in one wagon, not to be seen again. John Jr. had been only 3 years younger than Finn and the family hoped he would be back shortly after his 18th in 1929, or even better that Esme would return with the kids on her own in need of money.

Finn wasn’t gonna be like his siblings, or his father. He got himself cleaned up and went to Lizzie’s. She welcomed him in, eating some candied peaches that had been gifted her by Linda, Finn could smell the beer that was on her breath but hadn’t questioned how or when she had started keeping it in the house.

“Estelle isn't here, Finn baby.”

“I know that Lizzie, how are you and the baby”

Lizzie's face lit up. “She’s started to kick a little today. Every time I drink tea! So I've been drinking it all day waiting for someone to show up and feel it! You'll be the first.” She took Finn’ hand and placed it on her small baby bump. Surely enough a little tap was felt. Barely noticeable. But there was a little life expressing itself in Lizzie. 

“That's wonderful Lizzie,” he said, “but I actually came to see if I could find the book Estelle and I had been reading” 

“It should be in her room. You guys are almost done with it right?”

“Yeah. One more chapter.”

“You sure you can read it on your own?”

“Yeah, with enough time,” Finn said, walking toward Estelle's bedroom. He found it in her nightstand. Bookmark in place. 

He opened the book remembering where they left off. Just before the end of chapter eight. It was only 5 in the afternoon. He slipped his shoes off, laying down on Estelle’s bed. 

He read all the way to the end of the book, never having felt more accomplished in his life. But when he went to sit up, his hand brushed something under Estelle’s pillow. He pulled it out and it took a second to realize what it was. 

Estelle kept the handkerchief that he had dried her tears with on the day they met. He ran his fingers over the fabric and thought back to that day. The way her hazel eyes had shined green from the red around her teary eyes. And he remembered watching her body as she had walked up the stairs into Ada’s townhouse. God he missed her.


	14. Chapter 14

Estelle listened to Bonnie the whole way to the wedding, to her father. Her family members as described by him were something she was both excited and fearful for.

Esmeralda was the family beauty. But looking at Bonnie, Estelle could see that the family had good traits. She held the photo in her hand and struggled to decide which of her parents she looked more like. She thought Bonnie looked almost nothing like their father, but Estelle shared the same cut cheekbones and strong jaw that her brother and father had. Her mother had been this busty little thing in the photo with a round face and stick straight hair like Estelle’s. She hoped she fit in well with her sisters. Esmeralda was apparently 22 and very stern despite her beauty. Bonnie explained how she had filled in their mother’s role several years earlier, taking care of the youngest sister, Eulalia. 

“I remember once my dad tried to get some property from Mr Shelby,” Bonnie said, “and Mr shelby said that they would spin a coin for it, but if he won, he’d get to fuck Em. Now Em has a real sense of duty about her but to this day I think Babo turned down the deal more for Shelby’s sake rather than Em’s. I’d have paid good money to watch Shelby try to fuck my sister knowing she’d have beaten him down with a shoe” Bonnie laughed. 

Bonnie went on to describe Esmeralda even more to Estelle. Explaining that she was almost as tall as he was and had a statuesque beauty, clear skin the color of tea with creamer and thick black hair she kept piled in a bun on her head, held together with a singular ivory hair stick that belonged to their mother. She bore eyes that could rip the soul from your very body when she was angry, a coal black. 

The Middle sister was Euphemia, whom the Gold family held singularly responsible for the stereotypes being upheld about Romani people. Born in September of 1910, the child had a taste for expensive things, and what she couldn’t buy, she stole. Bonnie said they had previously had to skip towns because of her kleptomania. She was however the one in the family called upon when anything needed stealing. The fifteen year old’s primary ambition was to marry an exceptionally wealthy man and have everything at her fingertips. Apparently she had been begging to be introduced to Thomas Shelby since he had hired her father saying that she was sure she could snag him for herself.

Bonnie said Estelle would recognize her when she saw a girl dripping in jewelry and silk. Like Estelle, Euphie had cut her hair short to keep up with the trend of the time, unlike the other siblings though, she took after Aberama’s mother, standing at only 4’ 11 and keeping golden strands of hair that contrasted with her sun-kissed skin. She always kept her full lips red as wine.

Eulalia was twelve and as much a fighter as her brother. Back when their mother had died, Bonnie and Esmeralda had personally taken it upon themselves to fill in her parent roles for Lala despite other family members offers to take in the children separately to make it easier on poor Aberama. Aberama of course turned down these offers, though the greater family group stayed together and watched over anyway. 

So while Esmeralda maintained all those womanly duties that revolved around keeping “house”, Bonnie watched over Eulalia, by strapping her to his back and doing his usual boyish nonsense, getting into fights with other little boys when they would tease Euphie. The worst incident of this was when Eulalia was maybe 5 and the children in the town they were staying in had started throwing rocks at the little trio. One struck her across the face, and after sending Euphie running back home with Eulalia covered in blood, Bonnie fought the boys who were 13 compared to his 11, and he won having knocked them each out and leaving them in the dirt after taking the small amounts of coin change they had had in their pockets. To this day, Eulalia had a scar fading on her cheek, but it hadn’t affected her image of herself. The wild child had even cut off all her hair just because Esmeralda threatened to do it if she wouldn’t keep it brushed. Bonnie said that Lala would be the most obviously badass child in the group at the wedding. 

Estelle had a fantastic time traveling with Bonnie South to the wedding. On the way down they had to stop in a town and buy suitable wedding attire and a gift for the happy couple. Bonnie rolled his eyes as his sister put him in a suit from a department store and they both had a laugh when a woman gave Estelle a spritz of the worst perfume ever.

But the true nightmare of it was when they found the perfect wedding gift for Esmeralda. In the showcase was a set of dangling ivory earrings that Bonnie said matched Em’s hair stick remarkably well. So the plan was devised to get them. 

Estelle put on her new dress and dolled herself up as much as she could to strut into the store and ask to see the pair of earrings, Bonnie would have entered a few moments earlier and once the earrings were set on the counter he would cause a distraction by hitting on another young lady in the store. As soon as the Man attending the jewelry turned his head to see what the fuss was about, Estelle slipped the earrings into her pocket and hustled out. Bonnie was kicked out soon after and told not to come back. They had pulled off stealing jewelry but didn’t celebrate till they were back at the wagon and on their way again.

Estelle fondled the jewelry in her hand. “Do all you Romani do this when we can’t afford something?”

Bonnie’s face darkened slightly, “No. that’s not the impression I ought to be giving you. This was just a special occasion and our family specifically has a lot worse record on us than the worth of a pair of earrings. But no. and those that do, most often do it out of need rather than want.”

“Are her ears even pierced?”

“If they aren’t, they will be when she sees these,” his smile returned.

The rest of the trip was lighthearted but Bonnie warned her when they were within a mile of the camp. Estelle felt her heart rate go up. She was about to meet her father, her sisters and whole extended family that knew nothing of her. Bonnie squeezed her hand, sensing her distress.

“Hey,” he said. Go change your clothes. I’ll not have my family thinking I’ve brought home some ragamuffin when you’ve been consorting the blinders and should look it”

Estelle shuffled back into the wagon and dug around her bag for some clean clothes. She heard her brother shouting a greeting as she slipped the dress over her unders. When she opened the hatch to slip back into the front with Bonnie, she was greeted with the surprised and smiling faces of a few romani men who had been waiting to greet people and direct traffic in a way. 

“Well who’s this then?” one teased Bonnie, assuming Estelle was his girlfriend. 

“She's here to represent the Shelby family” Bonnie answered, shutting down any suspicion.

As Bonnie pulled the wagon into an empty spot, Estelle watched the new people, seeking out the faces of her father and sisters amongst the numbers. 

Bonnie hopped down first, tying off the horse to a tree before helping Estelle down. 

“Don't be afraid,” he whispered as he set her down, “they love anyone that will accept them. They don't have to be on guard since its all family. Now come on, I saw Lala on the way in and we've got to say hello.”

Before they could even round the wagon, Eulalia had found them and tackled her brother to the ground in a hug. Estelle had to cover her mouth to hide her laughter at such a tall man taken down by a little sprite. 

“Hey now,” Bonnie said, “Don't be doing that when I've got to be presentable. Besides, it's rude to my guest.” 

When they stood back up, Eulalia sister her brother off before turning and offering her hand to Estelle.

Bonnie introduced them, Eulalia sized up Estelle and seemed to decide Estelle was acceptable to join her family for their stay. 

“You're brother told me about you,” Estelle said playfully to the child. 

“Oh yeah,” she replied, “what did he say?”

“Only that you were most impressive child I would see.”

Eulalia stood up straighter and held her chin high with pride, “well he’s not wrong.” She turned to Bonnie, “I like her: She can stay” and with that she returned to running with the other children. 

Estelle's next interactions came with the boys that Bonnie had grown up playing with. Bonnie brushed them off quickly though, as they had taken to teasing Estelle in a way they wouldn't have dared with Euphemia. 

As they approached a group of older men drinking and laughing, one stepped out to greet them. Aberama called to his son, “Bonnie, what’ve I told ya about bringing gadje whores to family functions?” 

He had to get much closer before Estelle could recognize who it was. Bonnie was kind enough to come to her defense when she was struck silent. 

“She’s representing the Shelby’s, Babo. And she’s Diddekoi at that”

“Oh and what’s the Blinder girl’s name then?”

“My name is Estelle Carraway,” Estelle replied, finding her voice, “It’s wonderful to meet you.”

“Carraway, don’t recall meeting any of them,” Aberama eyed Estelle up and down, “you do look familiar though. But that doesn’t matter. Welcome to the Cheltenham encampment. For now anyway. But now my son has to go set you up and leave you with the bride and his other sister for the night. We can’t have the girls getting scared off of Bonnie because a girl is staying in his wagon. Especially when we have some Boswells here. Now off with you two and Bonnie I expect you to join us men when you’ve left her off” 

When they had stepped away, Bonnie told Estelle in hushed tones that she had held her own better than he had expected and asked if she had their gift for Esmeralda on her. A tall girl stood visible a few yards away but Estelle knew she was the fabled beauty to be married, if not by her large smile then by the crowd of women showering her with coos and fussy affairs. Estelle held the small sachet with their gift inside. And Esmeralda waded through the mess of excited women to hug her brother.

“Em, this is a new friend of the family,” Bonnie said with a grin, “Babo said you had to keep her with you and Euphie. But I think you’ll like her, and if you don’t now, you will after you see the wedding gift we both dipped in on for you.” Bonnie and Esmeralda turned to face Estelle, the woman crowded behind Esmeralda watching to see how to receive the stranger. “Estelle, pass on our gift and let the women gush over it so that I can go get your bag and get back to my father”

Estelle took Esmeralda’s hand gently and placed the sachet in her palm delicately. “Esmeralda thank you for letting me stay with you and I really hope you Like me as much as we know you’ll like these.” 

“Of course,” Esmeralda smiled gently as she fished her fingers through the small bag. Bonnie plucked the hairpin out of her hair as she pulled the pair of earrings out.

Esmeralda gasped in delight upon realizing what had been gifted her, “Bonnie are these actually ivory? I ought to smack you for stealing these for me but I really love these.”

“Thank Estelle, if it weren’t for her you wouldn’t have them,” Bonnie winked. “Now I’m getting away from all you girls.” And just like that he strutted away, leaving Estelle.

Esmeralda fastened the earrings in as she spoke to Estelle, “Sisters it is then.” The teeth in her smile gleamed like the white bone that adorned her. The girls loved each other already.

And that was all it took for the swarm of women to return to their skeen of wedding superstitions and blessings inducting Estelle as one of them.


	15. Chapter 15

Lizzie ended up having to call Polly to come and get Finn from the house. She did pity him, but she was in no mood to put up with a sad teenager while having morning sickness. Instead of taking Finn home, Pol brought him back to the Garrison. 

“Go on, take a swig of your medicine and get in there” she demanded, "You can't let people think anything has affected you." Finn begrudgingly did as he was told. 

Inside life went on as usual, Harry manned the bar and the men were in a roar drinking and laughing. 

“Come on Finn, you’ve got to get your act together while you’re here and I’ve made sure you won’t be leaving any time soon.” Polly pushed Finn toward Isaiah, who hadn’t waited for Finn’s arrival before his first drink and welcomed his friend with a big grin and open arms. 

At first Finn tried to turn down the drinks offered him by friends, but he finally gave in to pressure. He took the first shot from Isaiah. And then the ball got rolling. Five shots in, he stopped counting and the morphine only made things worse.

He and his mates nicked a bottle and took to the streets, laughing, carrying on, and causing trouble. Finn watched the world grow fuzzier and fuzzier. Somewhere along the way they lost Isaiah to a pretty girl. About 5 minutes after the next swig, the last thing Finn could remember was thinking about the cars parked about a block ahead. 

Finn woke up to the smell of cooking food. It was enough to make him sick. He yanked open his nightstand drawer and disgusted even himself. Once he finally cleaved himself from the bed the pain in his jaw hit him like a baseball bat. He looked around for his pants and found the morphine in his pocket. Taking another sip of it, he laid back on his bed wishing he were dead, feeling halfway there already. He took a deep breath and finally got up to see what Pol was making in the kitchen, sure he was going to get an earful about the trouble he and the lads got into last night and how she had to come fetch him yet again. 

Except as he went into the kitchen, it wasn't Polly standing there. It was a girl maybe 15 with dark curling hair tied up on the top of her head. She was frying eggs in the fireplace. Finn had never checked to see if his stove was functional but even if it wasn't, he wouldn't have tried this route. 

The girl turned to face him. Her smiling face was striking, a round face and clear complexion, save a spot on her left cheek, and eyes like umber welcomed him into his living space. Finn internally did a double take to get back on track to realizing this strange girl was cooking in his apartment. 

“Good morning, Finn darling!” she said cheerfully.

“Good morning?” Finn answered, uncertain how to ask her name in a way that wouldn't offend her. 

“I hope you like your eggs this way, I’ve only ever made them scrambled myself. Of course you'll have to thank your neighbor for allowing me to take the three eggs. So we'll have to go grocery shopping later.”

“Us?” Finn asked, “grocery shopping?”

“Of course. You can't expect me to live here without food now can you? Finn, sweetie?”

Finn brought his hand up to run his temples. “I'm so sorry but you'll have to give me a recap on last night. I mean, where did I even find you?”

“Well you and I got to talking and decided I should come be yours and get married.”

“I'm sorry, let me try to explain again, your name is…?”

“Alzaeda Lee” she said, standing up straight and plating the eggs. She glanced back and forth between her work and making eye contact. 

Finn made the mental connection as to why her face seemed familiar. It wasn't her face he knew. It was her father’s. He prayed he was wrong as he stated, “As in the Lee clan.”

“Yes! You ran rings in your brothers yard and I was in the passenger seat because you wanted to impress me with your driving. And then you said that I liked that sort of thing I should stay with you and it would be like everyday Once I become a Shelby-”

“Become a Shelby?” Finn asked as his anxiety slowly built.

“Well of course. You think I could get away with staying a night alone with a man I'm not at least intending to marry?”

“Isn't your father Erasmus Lee?”

“One and the same.”

“Wonderful,” Finn lied nervously. He ate the eggs thoughtlessly as he spoke, “now I really have to run in to work, but here is 4 quid so you can do that grocery shopping without me. I’ll be back soon.” 

Alzaeda gave Finn a kiss on the cheek before he left. 

The police were downstairs taking note on the stolen car having been found here almost out of petrol. Finn said not a word to them as he shuffled around them and then as quick as he could to the offices. He about ran into Tommy’s office door, unable to get it open quickly enough for his liking.

When he got there he found Polly, Arthur, and Tommy all loudly discussing something. They didn't even notice his entrance. 

“Guys.” he wasn't answered. 

“Guys.” He said again. The arguing got louder. 

“GUYS” Finn almost yelled to be heard. 

“Finn boy, we know you're upset but we’ve really got more pressing matters to attend to now.”

“Like what?” Finn asked, sidetracked for a moment. 

“Last night,” Tommy said,” someone destroyed my yard. I don't know how I didn't hear it. But to be defaced like this after I make the first announcement that I'm running for parliament, we've got to take it seriously.” Arthur nodded in agreement. 

“That was me.” Finn said, uncaring for any consequences. 

“What?” 

“Yeah, I did that. Next thing on the list?” Finn watched Polly turn from surprise to realization and then delight.

Tommy stared at him a moment before continuing. “Alright this morning Johnny came and told me at breakfast one of the Lee girls was missing and they want our help on finding her. Now Finn I'm sure you have no answer here so-” 

“Actually that's why I'm here.”

“Come again?” Tommy asked. 

“I woke up to her cooking eggs in the fireplace. She's currently in my parlour.”

At this point Arthur's silent laughter turned into full bellows of laughter. Tommy had The opposite reaction, silently taking off his glasses and leaving his office. Polly’s smile also disappeared, and she was the one to address him. 

“Finn tell me that Erasmus Lee’s daughter didn’t stay with you alone overnight.”

“Erasmus Lee’s daughter didn't stay with me overnight” Finn recited. He bit his lip. Even in such a delicate situation, the sarcasm gene running in the family was unsuppressed. 

“Now is that true?” she asked. 

“No” 

“For fucks sake Finn!” Polly started. “The Lees are going to insist you wife her. You've compromised her virtue and now she’s going to be practically discarded if you send her back as ‘spoiled goods.’”

“I was hoping you would tell me that was just a stereotype and not actually adhered to” Finn replied. “What the hell am I going to do?”

Arthur had stopped laughing by the time Polly had made her point. And seeing the distress on his brother's face made him start searching for the right words to comfort him. He had it worked out in his head right, but instead when he opened his mouth, “Think of marriage-”

“Shut up Arthur,” Polly said, “Finn you absolute fool. Arthur you need to get Tommy to set up a meeting so we can speak to Erasmus. He won’t listen to you, especially since you cut that chunk of his ear off. And you, Finn-”

Finn cut Polly off, “When the fuck did Arthur do that?”

“About 2 weeks before John and Esme got hitched,” Arthur said, standing to go get Tommy, “back when we were performing ‘protective services’ for Kimber.”

“Anyways, Finn you need to go get that girl and bring her here. Before we get a hold of the Lees we need to ask you two some questions,” Polly continued.

“Pol, I don’t have no answers”

“Says the boy that waltzed in and answered all our questions not 10 minutes ago. Then i guess we’ll just be asking the girl questions. But you best start thinking of some answers: even if we do get this sorted, you were already in hot water with Estelle. I can’t see this making things easier on that front”

“Oh my god, Polly. What am I going to do?”

“Watch your fucking language,” Arthur ordered of Finn, “Don’t worry, we’ll get this sorted. Just fucking go get here before she decides to go adventuring even more.”

Finn practically flew home, where he found Alzaeda in the bath filled with glee. He immediately covered his eyes modestly in an attempt to preserve what modesty she had left. 

“Finn, you’re home!” she said excitedly, “I was just seeing how your bathtub was! I’ve never been in one before, we just have the washer and basin in the wagon. And the water is SO warm I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying this. You might as well wash with me since I know you didn’t before bed last night. And uncover your eyes silly.”

“Alzaeda, my family wants to meet you. Do you mind getting out and, uh, dressed so I can take you?” Finn heard the water moving and his mind flashed back to his memory of bathing in that tub with Estelle not so long before, how her wet hair stuck to her glistening skin. He remembered the way the wet silk slip had clung to her curves. And then his thoughts were interrupted by the front of his body suddenly growing wet, and a hand pressed against his bits and pieces. 

“I see you’re glad to see me,” Alzaeda cooed. 

Finn moved his right hand to cover both of his eyes and moved the left to remove her hand. 

“Please just go get dressed,” he all but begged. He couldn’t deny that she had felt soft, but he was in no mood for this. He knew John might not have had any trouble mating with anything that showed vague interest in him, but Finn didn’t feel the same way, and he hoped that feeling was maintained even under the influence. 

“Fine darling, but I hope you won’t be so cold to be after we’re married. You were much more fun last night.” 

Finn curled his lips with frustration, “we can discuss that later but for now we’ve got to get you all caught up with my family.” As soon as he heard the door her step out of the room, he uncovered his eyes. He saw she had taken his towel and left the water in the tub so he rolled up his sleeves and drained it himself. He didn’t understand how someone could want such a hot bath in 22 degree weather. He took another sip of the morphine before going out to meet the Lee girl.

She was dressed and ready by the time he got back to the main room. When she saw him she stretched out her hand for him to hold as they went on their way. Finn hesitated, but decided to take it and felt her cold hand squeeze his. He watched her take a deep breath. 

“Lead the way,” she said.

Alzaeda talked incessantly all the way to the offices, but Finn didn’t mind. In fact he hardly noticed at all. After nearly 2 decades he had learned how to tune out ongoing noise from his family members. Instead, he thought of Estelle. She had been gone two days now. She may have even spoken to her father by now. There might even be trouble from Aberama over keeping Estelle’s parenthood a secret. Finn hated to think of how much worse it would be to have two angry fathers after him. His heart filled with dread and regret. He couldn’t even remember if he had committed the act with this girl on his arm the night before. He hadn’t remembered stealing the car either though, or tearing through Tommy’s yard, or god knows what else. He snapped back to his task once they reached the building. He led her up the stairs and down the way to Tommy’s office. Before he could even knock, Tommy opened the door with a smile. 

“Alzaeda Lee?”

"Yes, sir?"

"Thomas Shelby, OBE. Come try my gin."


	16. Chapter 16

The wedding went off without a hitch. And the party went on even after the newlyweds went off to stay in the nice hotel Aberama had booked for their honeymoon. Estelle managed to stay well on the sidelines but even Bonnie dragged her into the dancing. As the night went on fewer and fewer people remained. Eventually all who were left were Aberama, Bonnie, some of Bonnie’s friends and the young couple still rocking back and forth near the bonfire despite the ed of music.

“Bonnie?” Estelle whispered.

“Yes, I know what you’re about to ask,” Bonnie answered, “I know what you’re about to ask and now is as good a time as we are going to get.” He stepped over to his father.

Estelle watched them speak for a moment before waving for Estelle to join them on the other side of a wagon.

“Now what have you two got that is so important to tell me?” Aberama asked. 

Estelle pulled the photograph from her pocket and handed it to her father silently.   
He looked it over before glancing back up at Estelle. Her anticipation was so pent up that she could hardly hold still. 

Aberama handed the photo back. “So you’re my Estelle.” he said, “no wonder I recognized you. You look just like your mother.” 

“So you know about me?” Estelle asked, shocked.

“Know about you? I’m the one that has been keeping you housed and fed all these years. Come sit down somewhere private. This is going to be a long conversation.”

Estelle looked over to Bonnie, who had been silently seething with rage since Aberama opened his mouth. She touched his arm in an attempt to calm him down, despite her own mixed emotions.

They all stepped up into Aberama’s wagon and after he lit the lamp inside, the conversation continued. 

Aberama told the story of how he had met Estelle’s mother and how just before her death, she had found a way to send word to Aberama that she was sick and their daughter would have little to no means of support. Unable to take Estelle into his own home with his unknowing wife and children, he had taken up the burden of sending an annual income to the Lewis family in order to maintain them. He had no clue that Mary had died and that Estelle had been left alone.

“When exactly were you planning on meeting me?” Estelle asked a little bitterly. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears with anger and hurt. He obviously didn’t want her or he would have raised her. 

“I wasn’t going to. Your grandparents didn’t want you to know me so it was agreed I would stop once you were married. But you seem to be doing well enough for yourself with the exception of what all this Shelby business is. What is this Shelby business by the way?”

Bonnie and Estelle glanced at each other before deciding how to respond. 

“After Nana Mary died I had to walk to town and ran into Finn-”

“Finn?”

“Mr. Shelby”

“So you’re on a first name basis with the boy.”

Estelle pooled up her courage, well aware she was about to expose herself to insult. “I actually live with the other Mister Shelby’s girlfriend”

“His mistress you mean,”Aberama said calmly, “ and have you been consorting with-”

“Finn is sweet on her,” Bonnie interrupted angrily, standing in the small space “ and he has been just as much a gentleman to her as one can expect a man to be to a girl in her situation. Their interest in one another has provided your daughter with a roof over her head and food over the table when her own father was not even aware that she wasn’t even home for months. Now you and I both know that if there has been any consorting going on it can be easily remedied by a fucking priest but don’t you dare come after her for not being good enough for your name when you robbed her of that years ago.”  
Both Estelle and Aberama shared a look of astonishment at Bonnie’s outburst. Estelle by herself felt touched to the core that her brother would take up her mantle to fervently against Aberama.

A few moments passed in silence before Bonnie sat down again and Aberama found words. “Well, Ms. Estelle Gold, is there any remedying needs done?”

Estelle bit her lip. She didn’t want to lie. 

“Well sometimes silence is as good as an answer.” Aberama wasn’t pleased, but he knew better than to set Bonnie off again. “Tomorrow we will make proper claim of you as mine and then we’ll set about getting an arrangement made with the Shelbys. I will not, however,” he grinned with a twinkle in his eye, “ Be the one to tell Euphie that she no longer has any chance of landing a Shelby boy, since you have irrevocably staked that claim. Now Estelle, you go sleep in Esmeralda’s bed. Bonnie and I have a little bit of business to attend to before we can set about tomorrow. And I won’t have any arguments.”

“But he was the one that hid it from me.” Estelle disputed. She still loved Finn but this was an action that wasn’t going to go unchecked. 

“I beg your pardon?” 

“The Shelbys hid this photo from me because they thought they could use it as leverage toward you one day,” Bonnie explained. 

“Well then I guess Tomorrow will be a very long day for us all and we best be prepared.”

The trio got down out of the wagon. As Bonnie helped Estelle down he whispered in her ear, “I’ll come check on you later but for now do as he says, I promise to take care of everything.” 

And with that, Estelle made her way back to her temporary bed. She had only been laying there a few minutes when she heard the little door at the end of the wagon open. “Bonnie?” she said in a hushed tone. 

“Naw it ain’t Bonnie,” the voice replied, “but it’s dark enough you can pretend.” 

She felt the cart move as the intruder climbed in. “Little gazhe girl come to camp for lovin?” 

“Get out,” Estelle demanded nervously, “touch me and I’ll scream.”

Before the unwelcome visitor could get another word out, the door opened again and another voice rang out. “Mickey get the fuck out of me sister’s before I beat ya and tell yer ma what you’ve been up to.” The girl climbed in as well, shortly followed by another holding a lamplight. Mickey promptly gave up his pitiful exploit, knowing when he was beat, and climbed out, receiving a prompt kick to the ass from the girl holding the lamp. 

“Sorry,” Mickey shied as he left, as if that fixed anything. 

Now that her eyes had adjusted and the fear more or less subsided, Estelle could see that it was the two younger Gold sisters that had come to her rescue.

“Sorry,” Eulalia apologized, “Mickey’s a bit fucking dense but he’s never done any harm. We’ll get him sorted in the morning.”

Estelle had never witnessed someone so young as Eulalia talk like a full grown adult man before and didn’t have a better response than a feeble, “Thanks.” 

“So Lala been listening in on your conversation with Bon and Babo and seems it’s apparently ‘our’ Babo now. Am I right?” Euphemia said. 

“Well,” Estelle sighed, “you’re not wrong.”

“I’m not going to lie to you, we’ve had suspicion that we weren’t the only Gold babies out there but it does hurt a little to know we were right. And I’m not going to quickly forgive you if it’s also true what she said about you marrying into the Shelbys like I was supposed to.”

“I’m not engaged to anyone, but our father seeks to change that soon.”

“Well which Shelby is it then?”

“Mr. Finn Shelby”

“Oh for Fucks sake,” Euphemia groaned, “you had to steal my place marrying into our best connection and you couldn’t even woo the king of it all?”

Estelle was insulted on Finn’s behalf. “I wasn’t trying to ‘woo’ anybody. And aside from that. Money isn’t what makes a man. Now Finn might not wield the power in that family but I promise you that not only is he more of a man for knowing what fucking emotions are but comparing him to what the mother of Thomas Shelby’s newest baby says about Thomas I must say I have a strong suspicion that he is more of a man in that intimate department as well.”

The two Gold girls stared at Estelle for her audacity in admitting what she just had. 

“Well she’s definitely related to Bonnie with that temper,” Eulalia teased, “that’s for damn sure.”

“Right well I guess Babo will have to find me some other gangster king,” Euphemia grinned, “Well I guess we’ll get the rest more proper sorted in the morning but Lala needs to get to bed.” She stood up and pushed Eulalia’s shoulder. “Good night!”

-

The next morning was rather a blur to Estelle, Aberama personally introduced her to everybody who had stayed the night before as they packed to leave. Before she knew it, the sun was properly overhead and they were only just leaving to get back to Birmingham.

Bonnie drove while Estelle and Aberama caught up. She was still wary to trust him, but what she was going back to had proved to be less than trustworthy as well. Estelle thought about Finn. The same boy that had picked her up and comforted her after the death of her grandmother as a stranger had withheld her one remaining family link. She brooded, half listening to her father, who was talking about how he fell in with the blinders. Bonnie had already told her. Thinking about her time with Finn, she realized that despite the occasional letdown, he had always had a heartfelt apology and solid explanation for why he had done what he did. He had left her alone in the Birmingham streets at night, she recalled. But only because he had to rush his brother to a doctor to save his life. Even when she went all the way back to her home both sick of Finn’s secret keeping, and fearful of Shelby wrath, he came and found her and made it a night to remember. If he hadn’t picked the lock of that drawer, she’d have never gotten the opportunity to even find her father. 

“I forgive him.” she said, interrupting her fathers talk. 

“What was that?” Bonnie inquired.

“I forgive Finn. Without him, I would have never found you,” she explained to the pair around her the line of thought, her heart no longer full of dread at the confrontation. 

Aberama smiled his half smile and lit a cigarette, “Well a willing bride certainly makes remedying things much easier. And if what you say is true, then I won’t have to hate my future son-in-law, we just have to settle with his brother.”

“I don’t even know if he is awake. We’ve got to hope Bonnie didn’t cause any lasting damage,” she said.

“I barely touched him!” Bonnie defended himself, “It isn’t my fault the kid can’t block or throw a punch.”

“Why did he get in a ring with you anyhow,” Aberama asked.

“Nothing,” Bonnie hastily replied, “It was a matter of honor between two men.”

“Right,” his father answered, “I’ll remember that the next time you have any honor to defend.” 

Estelle fell into a fit of giggles at the wit, watching her newfound father blow smoke into the face of her brother. She adored them already, and her sisters were growing on her, especially seeing in the morning that while Euphemia hadn’t told Mickey’s mother, she had told Bonnie what Mickey tried to do and in the light of day before god and everyone else, Mickey’s face was a patchwork of purple and blue from where Bonnie had gotten ahold of him. In fact, Mickey promised her quietly he had learned his lesson and wouldn’t try something like that again after Bonnie had put the fear of God and the Gold name into him. Things seemed now like they could only be looking up.


	17. Chapter 17

Finn swore he was never going to drink again to himself while his family vetted Alzaeda. Sadly enough he was only thankful for the way Tommy had treated her, with the same deadpan business tone he treated most strangers. Finn knew he was assessing her and thinking out where to go from there. But Arthur and Polly about had him in fits from the way they acted. Arthur was clearly amused by the whole situation and Polly spent the entire time entertaining anything the Lee girl said about how Finn was going to be hers. Down to how she expected their children to look. It finally ended when Arthur insisted on being the one to show her around the Shelby properties, something that would take an hour at least. As soon as he was sure they had gone, he spun around to see grim faces on both Polly and Tommy. 

“Well?” he asked, a little impatiently.

Polly held a teacup in her hand. She had served it to their guest as a nicety after Tommy’s gin, which Alzaeda had hated. Finn realized now why, she was reading her tea leaves. She pursed her lips as she looked into the cup and back at her nephew, saying nothing. Tommy spoke first. 

“Well we can’t do much for your situation but we have already spoken to Erasmus and no one is too pleased about this match despite that it now seems a necessity.” Tommy confessed, “Boy you best start your speech because Estelle could be back anytime. You’ve got two girls on a string and causing issues with either of their families can bring us a great deal of trouble. Now I hate to say it but your relationship with the Lee girl is all but common knowledge now that the Lees know: Up until now, Estelle had no relation. And she wasn’t known as yours outside of our little circle.”

Polly entered the conversation at this point, setting the cup down. “That girl is going to bring nothing but grief. There’s no sign of love, marriage or children. Just betrayal and death. We need to go about this very carefully. We’ll have to call it a betrothal and see how it plays out. Estelle is just going to lay low for a bit. We’ll set up lookouts to bring the Golds to Tommy’s before they can find out elsewhere. The Lee girl will have to stay with Lizzie in the meantime. She can’t go back to staying with her family after last night.” Polly turned to Tommy, “you know what this means for you right?”

Tommy stood silently, not moving a muscle on his face to betray emotion. He knew exactly what Polly was referring to. He had meant to get around to doing it, but had considered himself to busy to do it. Finn waited for a reply. He watched Tommy get up and step over to the door. 

“Come on Finn,” he said, slipping on his suitjacket and lighting a cigarette, “You and I have got some jewelry to pick out.”

Finn’s anxiety had been steadily rising as the conversation went on. He followed Tommy and heard Polly shout from inside Tommy’s office as they left.

“And make it nice!” she called out.

-

Not an hour later, Finn and Tommy were on Lizzie’s doorstop, she grinned upon seeing the boys. 

“Oh Finn did you tell Tommy about the baby kicking! She isn’t doing it right now.”

Tommy looked back at Finn disapprovingly before bringing a smile to his face to speak to Lizzie. Finn had forgotten to tell him, but really, Finn thought, Tommy should visit Lizzie more often anyway. 

“We don’t know if it will be a girl or a boy yet Lizzie,” stated Tommy, leading her into the living room.

“Well Pol said she would be, and that she’d be named Ruby,” Lizzie argued back. Finn took slight relief in the subtle spark between the couple and their friendship beyond their sexual passion. 

“Don’t worry Lizzie, I’m on your side. I’ll bet you’ll get your Ruby.” Finn almost forgot his situation as he watched Tommy tense slightly in that way that told him he would have been smacked for that had he not been injured and if it wouldn’t have ruined the surprise.

“Lizzie I have to ask you to do something for me no matter how much you don’t want to.” Tommy said, Finn had helped Tommy come up with the way that would be best to broach this with Lizzie, trying to make it romantic despite their forced situation. Finn was excited with anticipation and knew he wouldn’t be able to hide the surprise from Lizzie if he stayed in the room. He couldn’t help but feel happy for her despite his own helpless state. So he excused himself for a few moments, listening on the other side of the door to the pair.

The next several minutes were spent explaining to Lizzie the events of the past night and morning. Tommy conveniently left out Polly telling him what he had to do and after saying that Finn’s new ‘bride-to-be’ was going to have to stay with her, simply placed the open ring box on her lap as he was seated next to her on the couch. Him choosing to sit there instead of across the table had been a large step for him, and only those that knew him would have known he never would have been in so intimately close a seat with another person. 

Finn heard nothing for a moment before a squeal of joy, he re-entered with a grin on his face to see a shining and victorious future Mrs. Lizzie Shelby beaming as she kissed Tommy, who was also smiling, even with his eyes. The rock on her hand would have been able to shine even in the eyes of the blind as the large rectangular ruby, set in gold, glint the light between two smaller diamonds on either side. 

“Lizzie, I don’t know how to thank you,” Finn said.

Lizzie was almost in tears with joy. She turned to Finn and told him that she knew everything would work out for the best. Tommy stepped out into the hall to call the office and let Polly know that Arthur could now bring Alzaeda over when he deemed fit. Lizzie’s words comforted Finn when she whispered during a hug that she knew it would work out with Estelle if he just gave it time like she had with Tommy.

“Alright my dear, we’ve got to go, but be expecting Arthur with the Lee girl later today. You get to give her her ring, since she already affirmed that Finn and she were engaged.” Tommy said, passing a second ring box from Finn’s hands into Lizzie’s. This ring was much more simple, a pretty round diamond with a white gold band. “Remember,” Tommy said to Lizzie, “I know you’re excited but you can’t let on that you haven’t had this for a while to the Lee girl, but I’m sure you’ll want to call Poll at the office and give her your good news.” 

Lizzie agreed and kissed him again. 

After that, Tommy and Finn swung by Finn’s house, picking up a change of clothes, and with that, went to Tommy’s to wait for the arrival of at least two members of the Gold family. 

Their arrival was met with the sound of a running and yelling toddler to greet his daddy at the door. After initial excitement of Tommy’s return home, Finn was expected very much by Charlie to play with him. Finn and Tommy both put aside their burdens for a moment to cater to the little princes wants. Charlie every day looked more and more like his mother, Finn thought, bouncing the giggling boy up and down. His eyes were his father’s, holding the same brightness that Finn remembered being in Tommy’s eyes before the war. Thomas hoped his son would never have to be drained of that light himself. 

Francis came and collected Charlie for his dinner a little bit later, leaving Tommy and Finn to wait once more. While they waited, Tommy poured them each a small glass of whiskey and gave a much more in depth explanation of the night Estelle left. They both laughed as Tommy recalled the surprise of finding Estelle hiding in that very room. The mirth was short lived as Tommy recounted his thoughts on how she took the new information. Finn somehow felt even more guilty at learning how level she had stayed through the transaction. Tommy warned that based on what he knew of her, her demeanor was probably changed after spending some time with the Golds. They never got a call from the Lee girl at Lizzie’s, and for that, Finn was grateful. Tommy even made a joking remark that she probably didn’t know how to use a phone. And after a while of talking like this they heard the sound of approaching horses. 

Finn and Tommy both quickly stood and straightened up, checking their weapons- just in case. Francis came into the room to announce the Gold’s arrival. Finn took a deep breath as Tommy told her to see them in. As soon as the trio entered, Estelle approached Finn and hugged him. Finn was shocked at this response. She was soon called back by Aberama clearing his throat. Finn wished she hadn’t left the embrace.

“Mr. Shelbys,” He greeted, “It seems we have some matters to attend to according to my daughter here.” 

Finn turned to face Tommy, who looked just as shocked as he was, however Tommy quickly shrugged it off and gestured for his guests to take seats on the couch. Bonnie shook Finn’s hand before sitting, apologizing for his injuries and asking how he felt. Finn thought about the last time he had taken a sip of his morphine and it didn’t seem recent enough to seem like he could be hallucinating this. 

“Now we all know why we are here,” said Aberama, “and having appealed to my better nature Estelle has convinced me to forgive everything with a few conditions.”

Finn saw Tommy look at him with an expression only he could read as ‘you’re lucky you’re my brother or i wouldn’t go to near this trouble to deal with this shit.’ 

Tommy sat up straight, “Alright, lets have it.” The brothers braced themselves.

“First of all, I want equal rights to the access of Mr. Strong’s yard.”

Tommy sighed. “Alright but I expect you not to cause any trouble.”

“Oh no of course not,” Aberama said with all the confidence of a man who would cause trouble and knew it. 

“What else?” Tommy asked.

“Well Estelle has informed me of her living situation and relation with your family as you see seated next to you and it seems there is some remedying to be done that I feel would be of benefit to both of our families. You see with my daughter being a diddikoi, despite her virtues, cannot marry a good, upright Romani boy. And being that there are already goings on between these two, I feel it best they consummate our families’ relationship before the Lord.”

“Done,” said Tommy, “but we have a situation to handle before this can happen.”

“What’s that, Mr. Shelby?”

“Finn has overnight been put in a situation with the Lee family and is currently engaged to one of their girls, under similar… pretext.”

Finn watched Estelle’s fist bunch up and hurt spread on her face, as well as Bonnie start to get worked up, but Aberama calmed them by placing one hand on each of their arms, as they were seated on either side of him. Finn knew Aberama must also be very angry with the situation, but none of his body language show it. Aberama had the same cool, calculating demeanor that Tommy had in most situations. 

“Now Polly says we ought to sit and wait this out to see how it goes.” Tommy went on, “she says the girl might not live to see the wedding.”

“I see,” said Aberama, “Well I’ll not seek to cross Ms. Grey, but my family will be staying here to see this goes in a favorable way for us.” 

“I’ll set it right, I swear” Finn promised, finally entering the conversation. He wished Estelle would say something, even something hurtful, Finn knew he deserved it. But he had missed her voice and her laughter. 

Aberama stood up to leave, not allowing his children a word. They followed his action. 

“Let’s hope we can work through this properly, Mr. Shelby.” Aberama threatened, “Or we might develop problems.”


	18. Chapter 18

“Finn has overnight been put in a situation with the Lee family and is currently engaged to one of their girls, under similar… pretext.”

Estelle understood Tommy’s meaning immediately and felt an incredible sense of shame and hurt was over her. It made her sick to her stomach. She felt her father’s hand on her forearm and was reminded of what her father had told her before they had entered the house. 

“Remember not to say anything dear,” Aberama had advised, “as much as you are my blood and I care for your opinion, this is very much a business transaction in our culture. And if he mistreats you in any way after you are married, we’ll kill him and then you’ll be free to find a better man to love.”

“Well don’t kill him Jesus Christ,” she had replied. Now Estelle had a brief flash of fear that if things didn’t turn out, she would end up like her mother had. Her mind raced and before she knew it, her father was standing up to leave. She followed him silently, refusing to make eye contact with Finn. 

“Fuck me,” Bonnie groaned as soon as the front door had shut. He lifted his hand to his forehead. As they walked to step back into the wagon, he once again broke the silence. “Well Estelle how about killing him now and then we just go on the road.”

“Hush Bonnie,” his father reprimanded. “You and I have both known the boy for a bit now and something doesn’t seem right here. Estelle, you’ve known him for a while as well. What do you think?”

By now they were on the move again. Estelle thought about the first time she and Finn had been intimate, but he had been so careful not to push her, to respect her. She overcame her initial upset, forcing herself to rationalize it. Aberama was right. Finn wasn’t like his brothers, hardened and detached. 

Aberama’s perspective was much less kind than Estelle’s. He felt Finn wouldn’t have acted because the boy seemed to have no ability to assert himself. He had been luck to convince his own daughter after what he told himself must have been months. There was no way the kid could have convinced a little romani girl to act that way in one night, even if money was offered. 

Estelle agreed with Aberama that it wasn’t like Finn, leaving the family to the conclusion that this was either Tommy’s hand, or the Lee’s. They discussed the best course of action and after setting up camp and getting food on their stomach, they got back to reasoning why this had been brought up. Bonnie suggested that perhaps the Shelbys didn’t want to be tied to the Gold name, but Estelle shot that down by mentioning her upgrade from an employee to almost Lizzie’s status after the Shelbys discovered her relation. 

After they had talked into the night ruling out reasons why this situation was in place, they had to finally succumb to sleep. Estelle lay there feeling defeated. She could hear the boys snoring and struggled to find her own sleep. She ran through the mental file she had on everything she knew about the Shelbys and the Lee clan. Not much came up admittedly. But something clicked just as she was about to fall asleep. She sat straight up and moved over to where Bonnie slept, shaking his shoulder a little to wake him, whispering his name.

“What you want?” he grumbled. 

“Bonnie, Finn had that brother that died. John. I met his wife shortly after she left. She left because he died right? Well she had a Toddler named Lee. Do you know what her maiden name was?” 

Bonnie’s eyes snapped open. “It was Lee. She was a Lee. I heard she had to marry him to settle a war, but the blood tie benefitted the Lees more than the Shelbys.”

Estelle knew this had to do something with it. It had to. The siblings woke Aberama, sharing their discovery with him and asked his opinion. He sat quietly for a moment.

“They’re trying to get that marriage tie back. The Lees weren’t involved in our deal this winter at all. They must have sent in their girl to force the situation,” he concluded, “my smart girl.”

“And people say we’re the immoral family,” Bonnie growled. 

“Forget that, Finn didn’t cheat!” Estelle said excitedly, kissing her brother and father on the cheek. She realized now that she wasn’t having to fight for her lover’s affection, but to save him from someone he must feel nothing for. “So we don’t blame the Shelbys, but the Lees. We tell Tommy and the engagement is cancelled!”

“Not that simple,” Aberama said, “We have a motive as to why they would do it, but no evidence. And our family isn’t one whose word really gets taken seriously if I’m completely honest dear.”

“Well what do we do then?” Estelle pouted. 

“We do what our family does. But Bonnie and I here have to lay low. So while we can help, you’ve got to do the deed yourself.”

Estelle stared Aberama dead in the eye for a moment. She knew what he meant, but she had to come to terms with it. 

“I have to kill the Lee girl.”

“Fuck no you don’t,” Bonnie protested.

“Yes fuck she does,” Aberama said back. The two started arguing rapidly in that language Estelle didn’t understand. 

Estelle’s own anger bubbled up as the men fought. This girl was causing upset with at least seven people she cared about. These people were sticking their hand into the wrong cookie jar, and they were gonna succeed. Surely the Esme she had met wouldn’t want this either. She hardened. Her heart had been through too much in the past few months to give up on the few good things she had had during these troubles.

“Just- fucking what do I have to do?” she asked. 

The boys stopped their dispute and turned back to her. Aberama smiled “Well the first thing to do is get some sleep. Nothing we plan tonight will be any good if we can barely keep our heads upright tomorrow.”

Bonnie pouted as the group returned to bed. But sure enough, Estelle heard snoring again in less than 5 minutes. Even Finn hadn’t killed a man, but every other Shelby had to her knowledge. She herself now had the strange peace of mind to fall into her own deep sleep. 

-

Estelle woke up early, feeling energized despite lacking a proper amount of sleep. Her father was awake before her and he gestured her over to the small fire they had going.

They discussed their plans. This has to be done in a way that wouldn’t implicate the Gold’s or the Shelby’s in any way or else a war would be ignited. They discussed options. And shortly thereafter were joined by a tired Bonnie who seemed to have accepted what was going to happen. And Bonnie had the answer, something that would regrettably be a risk and not at all a humane way to go, but nonetheless was the best option as it was one of few ways to have the death be ruled an accident. Estelle had determined that she wouldn’t let the act affect her too deeply. It would make her more like her loved ones anyway. If she didn’t in killing Alzaeda, then all would be lost and a war started as she would certainly be able to name her aggressor. 

”Alright but how do we get her where we need her?” Estelle asked. 

“First thing is that you have to befriend her while Bonnie finds out where exactly you will need her. We have to find out where she is staying in the meantime.”

“Surely we’ll only need a couple,” 

“All right then I guess we’ll send Bonnie here after only a couple”

“Well take me to Finn's then. I have to ask him what happened. Alone.” Estelle demanded. She had to know his side. She hasn't gone this long without properly seeing him in days.

“I can only take you to the edge of town. Remember I'm not exactly as fondly welcomed as the Shelbys.”

Estelle took a deep breath remembering show every time prior she had gone around town, she had gotten lost. “Alright, I can find my own way,” she said, unsure of herself.

Aberama rode her up to the borders of the neighborhood of Small Heath. He had given her a small gun to be kept in her handbag and told her to meet him back here by the barber's by sunset. It being a Sunday, the barber wasn't open and wouldn't might the loitering. Estelle nodded in agreement and made her way down the streets as best she could finally she spotted the familiar Garrison and walked in, unaware of their rules forbidding single women entry unaccompanied. She walked up to the bar. 

“Ma'am” the bartender said, “women aren't allowed at the bar alone.”

“I was just hoping to use your phone to get in touch with Mr. Shelby.” 

The man's demeanor immediately changed and shortly after, Estelle was listening to the ringing as she waited for someone to pick up the other line. She finally heard another voice. 

“Shelby Company Limited,” Estelle at this point could pick out Thomas's voice out of a crowd at this point. 

“Tommy, this is Estelle. Is Finn there?”

“He is,” Tommy exhaled as he spoke. 

“Would you send him down here to the Garrison?” 

She heard silence on the line for a moment before Tommy told her he sent Finn on his way with Isaiah. Before hanging up. Estelle moved back into the main room and looked at the small crowd.

“Sit at the end of the bar nearest the door,” the bartender instructed. She perched herself on the stool, crossing her ankles. With every patron that entered, her heart jumped and then fell until he finally came through the door with Isaiah. 

Finn rather fluidly pulled her down from the stool, setting her down gently. 

“One second dear,” he turned and opened the door to the private room, grabbing her by the waist and swinging her inside. He shut Isaiah out to fend for himself.

“Estelle, my love, I’m so sorry. I promise I can explain everything,” Finn gushed. Estelle shut him up, kissing him quickly on the lips. 

“You don’t have to explain everything,” Estelle replied, “I’ve already forgiven hiding the photograph as long as you promise not to hide anything from me again. But I do need to know how you got yourself in this.” 

Finn obliged wholeheartedly, telling everything that happened in his dream and after he woke up as best he remembered. Estelle was touched to the core by his expression of missing her, and listened silently feeling only warmth for the boy until he finished.

“Don’t worry Finn. none of us believe you actually slept with that… Alzaeda? Was it?” 

“Yes it was.” Finn cupped her cheek, “What did I do to deserve someone like you?” 

“You helped me rob and burn down my own house. And you’re not going to question anything I do while you have this problem under way. I’m interested to see if your current plan holds water.” She really had no faith in their current search for another blinder as an alternative, or really anyone. 

Finn then asked her about how well she had been received by her family. And he listened as she wistfully told him about her travels. And her sisters, omitting only the part of the intrusion of Mickey. She glanced at the small clock in the room. It was already 4 o’clock. If she was going to get all she wanted done before sunset, they had to go soon.

“Finn, where is she staying?”

Finn bit his lip, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer, “In your room.”

“In my fucking-” Estelle stopped herself from letting her temper flare up, “what about my things?” 

“Had Lizzie clear your stuff into another pantry or whatnot before Alzaeda got there.” 

“Thank you. I have to be back at the barber’s on the edge of town by sunset. But a favor first: Can I use your bath? I haven’t had a proper one in a couple days.” 

Estelle saw Finn grin just as big as he could before answering, “Only if I can watch.”


End file.
